GM, UAW reach tentative agreement to avoid strike at 4 Michigan plants

A strike that could have halted production of some of General Motors’ most profitable and important vehicles was narrowly averted Thursday. 

About 15 minutes before a 10 a.m. strike deadline, GM and the UAW reached a tentative agreement for a new contract for about 600 of GM’s Subsystems Manufacturing LLC employees. 

The details of that agreement are not yet known.

“The UAW will now focus on the ratification process,”  GM spokesman Dan Flores said in a statement. “We won’t be discussing details of the tentative agreement until the ratification process is complete.”

UAW picket signs Thursday, June 16, 2022, along the south entrance of Case New Holland Industrial's Burlington plant. Local 807 represents 430 of the 1,100 workers in Burlington and Racine, Wisconsin, who have been on strike against Case since May 2.

The subsystem employees have a different contract than that of the 48,000 GM hourly workforce in the U.S. that went on strike in 2019.

The subsystem workforce’s contract expired 14 months ago and after repeatedly failing to reach an agreement on a new contract, the UAW set a strike deadline for 10 a.m. Thursday for the subsystem workers at Flint Assembly, Factory Zero, Lansing Grand River and Orion Assembly plants. 

The UAW confirmed that it and GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC have reached a tentative agreement that the union will show to members of Locals 22, 598, 652 and 5960.

“This negotiation was drawn out and hard fought,” said UAW Vice President Terry Dittes, who is director of the union’s General Motors Department, in a statement. “We look forward to presenting the tentative agreement to members for their ratification.”

Critical to GM production

The subsystem workers’ strike could have brought production of GM’s most profitable vehicles to a standstill within hours. 

Subsystem workers sort all the parts that come into to the plants and then deliver those parts to the assembly line to keep production humming. 

“They bring me my parts. I can’t do my job on the line without them bringing me the parts,” said a GM hourly worker at Flint Assembly plant. The worker declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of contract negotiations. 

Flint Assembly is where GM builds its highly profitable and popular Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups. 

GM has three U.S. factories that build pickups. All three returned to round-the-clock operation earlier this week.

Local 598 Shop Chairman Eric Welter put out memos to union members at Flint Assembly earlier this week, the person said. The memos emphasized that GM’s regular hourly workers must — under terms of their 2019 National Agreement — cross the subsystem workers’ picket line and report to work if there is a strike. GM hourly workers could be fired if they joined the picket.