Workers picket outside of the Ford Assembly plant during the UAW strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers.
Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The historic United Auto Workers strike is over. GM was the last of the Detroit Three to reach a tentative agreement Monday.The union notched big wins on pay and ending tiered wages.
After 46 days on strike, the United Auto Workers said it had reached tentative agreements with all of the Big Three Detroit automakers, bringing an end to the union’s first-ever work stoppage at all three car companies.
The UAW announced Monday evening it had reached a tentative agreement with GM, the last of the Detroit car companies to complete negotiations. Local UAW leaders over the weekend approved a tentative agreement at Ford, which will now be voted on by members, and the union nabbed another agreement Saturday at Stellantis, ending the strike there.
Workers first walked off the job on September 15, when the union’s previous contract expired. A unique strategy known as a “standup strike,” threw precedence out the window, allowing the union to add factories to its action based on results at the bargaining table — all while only slowly dipping into its strike fund.
At its height, the strike included more than 40 facilities and some 46,000 workers.
The tentative agreements, which still need to be approved by members at all three companies, include wins such as 25% raises, restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, and a shortening of the path to full pay.
What’s in the new UAW contracts?
The 25% pay increases by April 2028 agreed to in the new contracts raise top pay to about $42 an hour, according to the union. That starts with an 11% immediate boost upon ratification, three annual raises of 3% each, and a final increase of 5%. The UAW said restoration of cost-of-living increases, which were suspended in 2009, could boost the total increases to more than 30%.
The union initially asked for 40% increases, and Ford’s last offer before the strike was 9% more pay over four years. More recently, Ford, GM and Stellantis were all offering 23% total pay increases.
For historical comparison, the union said its workers saw pay increases of 23% for all the years from 2001 through 2022.
Temporary workers will also get a hefty pay raise, totaling 150% over the course of the deal. These workers also now get ratification bonuses and profit-sharing checks.
On the long-bemoaned issue of tiered wages and a long grow-in period to the top wage, the UAW said Ford and GM agreed to end most divisive wage tiers, a system under which new hires were put on a less attractive pay scale. The grow-in period was also shortened to three years from the previous eight-year timeframe.
Another key win for the union was on organizing rights. The agreements with Ford, GM and Stellantis could give the UAW a boost as it seeks to represent workers at nonunion plants in the U.S. that are operated by foreign carmakers and Tesla, as well as future plants that will make batteries for electric vehicles.
The union said Ford agreed to put workers at a future battery plant in Michigan under the UAW’s master contract, and GM agreed to do so with work at Ultium Cells, a joint venture between the company and LG Energy Solution of South Korea.
Contentious talks
While the quadrennial contract talks in Detroit always include uncomfortable confrontations, this round of labor talks has been especially contentious and unpredictable.
Underpinning the negotiations were anxieties about electric vehicles, their unique manufacturing process that requires less labor, and their impact on automakers’ profitability.
Throughout the six weeks of talks, automakers repeatedly said more concessions and downtime at factories would cede more ground to non-unionized competitors like Tesla, where workers already made considerably less than their UAW counterparts.
Executives at the car companies chafed at the UAW’s lofty demands, which originally included 40% raises, and at times during the strike blamed the union of handing an advantage to their competitors. Ford and GM CEOs Jim Farley and Mary Barra made strong public statements throughout the talks, criticizing the union’s strategy and accusing them of unnecessarily dragging out the strike.
On the other side of the table, Fain has not minced words about his corporate adversaries. In his weekly live streams, he donned “Eat The Rich” apparel and accused Big Three executives of lying, providing insulting offers, and seeking to divide the membership against each other.
“Every time these company executives open their mouth, it’s to increase the fear, increase the uncertainty, and increase the doubt among the membership,” Fain said on a recent livestream.
Ford was the first to notch a tentative agreement with the union on Oct. 25 after employees spent 41 days on strike. Three days later, Stellantis followed. And on Monday, GM was the last to ink an agreement with the union, and end the 46-day work stoppage at their facilities.