UAW says GM outlines EV investment plans, will raise wages for US workers

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) speaks as U.S. President Joe Biden (not pictured) joins striking members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on the picket line outside GM’s Willow Run Distribution Center, in Belleville, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S., September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Acquire Licensing Rights

DETROIT, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers union said its tentative contract deal with General Motors (GM.N) includes plans for investments around electric vehicles and will raise wages for thousands of U.S. hourly workers at units with lower wage tiers than at vehicle assembly operations.

The UAW released more details of its tentative 4-1/2 year deal with GM <on Saturday. The tentative deal was first announced on Oct. 30.

The main economic provisions of the agreement follow the pattern set at Ford (F.N) and Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI), providing 25% base wage increases for full-time workers, which could total as much as 33% including newly negotiated cost-of-living allowances.

Temporary workers will have a faster path to full-time status and could see wages rise by about 50% immediately. Temporary workers who convert to full-time status could more than double their hourly pay over the life of the agreement, the UAW said.

The GM agreement will move more than 7,000 UAW workers in GM component plants, service parts warehouses and what GM calls “subsystems” operations up to the higher wage levels paid to assembly plant workers.

The new contract would largely unwind a strategy the automaker has used for years to hold down labor costs, UAW officials have said.

“We won this round,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video address on Saturday.

Now that preliminary approvals for all three contracts are done, UAW leaders will spend the next two weeks working to win “yes” votes from rank-and-file union members at the Detroit Three.

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