UAW Reaches a Tentative Agreement with General Motors, Bringing Ultium Cells Workers Into Master Agreement

On the morning of Monday, October 30^th, the UAW reached a historic tentative agreement with General Motors that paves the way for a just transition and wins record economic gains for autoworkers.  

Like the agreements with Ford and Stellantis, the GM agreement has turned record profits into a record contract. The deal includes gains valued at more than four times the gains from the union’s 2019 contract. It provides more in base wage increases than GM workers have received in the past 22 years.  

The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33% compounded with estimated COLA to over $42 an hour. The starting wage will increase by 70% compounded with estimated COLA, to over $30 an hour. 

The GM agreement kills several wage tiers that have divided the union. It will lift up those members who have been left behind and unify our membership for the fights ahead. The workers who will now be moved to the main production rate include GMCH workers, CCA workers, and workers at GM Brownstown. For the first time since they organized in the 1990s, GM salaried workers will receive a general wage increase, equivalent to that of hourly workers. The deal also brings two key groups into the UAW GM Master Agreement, at Ultium Cells and GM Subsystems LLC. Both of these groups have been left out of the Master Agreement, and have been told they would never come in. 

Many thought GM would never put more money on the table for their hundreds of thousands of retirees. In this agreement, however, GM has agreed to make five payments of $500 to current retirees and surviving spouses, the first such payments in over 15 years. 

The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including Cost-of-Living Allowances and a three-year Wage Progression, as well as killing divisive wage tiers in the union. It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans. Like the other two, the GM deal includes a right to strike over plant closures. 

GM workers will return to work while the agreement goes through the ratification process, with the UAW National GM Council convening in Detroit to review the agreement.  

All three of the Big Three now have a tentative agreement with the UAW. All three agreements break records and better unite our union. 

# # #

JF:JM:sr:opeiu494/afl-cio