UAW and General Motors Reach Tentative Strike Agreement
The United Auto Workers union (UAW) and General Motors (GM) have hammered out a tentative strike agreement. CNN reports that the deal includes agreements that GM will keep factories open. GM will also fund retiree health care through the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA).
General Motors' tentative labor deal with the United Auto Workers union includes guarantees that the automaker will continue to build cars and trucks at its remaining UAW-represented assembly lines, according to highlights of the agreement given to the union's local leadership Friday.
In addition, the deal provides for General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500) to pay 70 cents of every dollar of estimated future cost of healthcare coverage for its union-represented retirees and their families.
The local and regional union officials who make up the union's GM Council unanimously endorsed the tentative agreement, which was reached early Wednesday morning, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told a news conference Friday afternoon. The deal, which followed an all-night bargaining session, ended a two-day strike by 73,000 UAW members working at GM.
"It looks like both sides worked real hard hammering out the agreement once we struck," said Chris "Tiny Sherwood, president of Local 652 in Lansing, Mich., after the vote Friday. "They did a good job maintaining benefits. I think it's a very solid agreement and I think the membership will vote for it."
This Detroit Newsarticle lists bullet points of some of the highlights of the agreement between the UAW and GM. The Detroit News also says UAW leaders and retirees have praised the deal.
In an earlier video Reuters reported the agreement and said details of the exact terms are still "sketchy."
