The big three automotive of USA ended six weeks of a historic strike thanks to a preliminary agreement with the union for the signing of a new collective agreement of work, a measure celebrated by the president Joe Biden.
The deal was reached by General Motors (GM) and the union United Auto Workers (UAW)after similar understandings with companies ford and Stellantis.
According to a statement from the union, GM accepted, like its competitors, a basic salary increase of 25% in four years duration of the collective agreement.
Biden celebrated the “historic” agreement
Biden, who, while campaigning for his re-election, attended one of the protests organized by workers demanding better salaries, concluded what he called “historic” agreements.
“These record deals reward workers Automotive industry who made many sacrifices so that the sector continued functioning” during the 2009 crisis, the Democratic president said at a press conference.
What the agreement between the UAW and the automakers says
The agreements provide, in addition to salary increases during the four years of the collective agreementmeasures of cost of living adjustmentsocial benefits and improvements for the retirees, among other. “The three agreements are a record and unify our union”UAW estimated in a statement.
The known figures are lower than the 40% that UAW President Shawn Fain intended when the union began the forceful measure.
Like the agreements reached with Ford and Stellantis, wages for GM workers will rise 25% over the next four years, with 11% immediately. In addition, temporary workers who have been working at GM for more than nine months will automatically be permanent with improved salaries.
According to each firm, the understanding has specificities, such as increase the number of jobs in the case of Stellantis.
Stellantis pledged to create 5,000 jobs when it had planned layoffs in the context of the closure of a plant in Belvidere, Illinois, which has now been “saved,” according to Rich Boyer, vice president of the UAW.
GM was very pleased to achieve a preliminary agreement with UAW “illustrating the teams’ contribution” and allows us to “continue investing” in the future, with “good jobs” in the United States, said the company’s president, Mary Barra.
These agreements must be ratified by a vote of UAW members, reported the AFP news agency.
Historic strike
More than 45,000 workers went on strikeas part of a strategy in which the UAW gradually increased the number of factories targeted by strikes in search of better wage conditions since September 15.
It was the first time since the union’s creation in 1935 that Detroit’s “big three” were the subject of a simultaneous strike.
After starting with smaller plants and auto parts distribution centers, UAW extended the movement to the most important and “lucrative” factories of each group in Michigan, the birthplace of the automobile in the United States. Ford reached a preliminary agreement on Wednesday after 41 days of strike and Stellantis three days later, on Saturday.
The union announced that Ford and Stellantis employees would return to work without waiting for validation by vote within the union. At the close of Wall Street, GM gained 0.51% after the agreement with the UAW to end the strike; Ford (-1.96%) and Stellantis (-0.28%) meanwhile, fell.
Source: Ambito
