Workers represented by the United Auto Workers union has voted to ratify a new contract with General Motors after 40 days of striking, Automotive News reports.
While voting on the new contract will not be finished until later today, Automotive News has projected it is no longer mathematically possible for the ratification to fail based on unofficial results:
Unofficial results compiled by Automotive News show that 56 percent of production workers and 66 percent of skilled-trades employees voted in favor of the deal. With 93 percent of votes accounted for the deal is mathematically assured of passage.
A simple majority of workers within each group is required to secure ratification.
The UAW called for a strike back on Sept. 15 after a breakdown in negotiations with GM over issues of wages, job security, and paths to seniority for temporary workers as was reported at the time, shutting down 33 plants in nine states and 22 parts distribution warehouses.
In the weeks following, GM was forced to reverse its initial decision to take away striking workers’ healthcare coverage during the strike, the automaker reportedly lost hundreds of billions of dollars in planned production inventory that wasn’t produced due to the shutdown, Truck Month was at risk of not having enough trucks, and parts shortages led to production at some of the few North American GM facilities that didn’t stop for the strike to pause.
The two parties reached the tentative agreement ten days ago with final votes due by 4 p.m. today.
Automotive News previously published a comprehensive breakdown of the “winners and losers” of the tentative agreement, which you can read here.
It’s still unclear when exactly the workers’ strike will end and everyone will actually go back to work, if Automotive News’ projection is correct.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information is available.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
