(Detroit) The result of the vote to ratify the tentative agreement reached between General Motors and the United Auto Workers union, which ended a six-week strike in the United States, appears too close to call after counting in several factories.
The union has not yet released the final results of the ratification votes, but workers at several major GM plants who finished voting in recent days rejected the four-year deal by wide margins. and eight months.
On the other hand, a factory in Arlington, Texas, which employs about 5,000 GM workers, voted more than 60% in favor of the agreement, according to tallies announced Wednesday.
Monitoring the overall count on the union’s website on Wednesday showed a slight lead of 958 votes in favor of the agreement. But those totals do not include votes from plants in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, all of which rejected the deal, according to local union officials. In most cases, votes against ranged from about 55 to 60 percent.
It’s unclear what will happen next, but local union officials don’t expect an immediate walkout if the deal is rejected by a majority of members.
Meanwhile, the ratification vote continues until Saturday at Ford, where the tentative agreement so far has 66.1% support. Only a few large factories still count the votes.
At the manufacturer Stellantis, the agreement in principle was adopted by an overwhelming majority of nearly 80% where the vote was completed. But workers at several large factories have yet to vote. The final counts should be announced Thursday evening.
The agreements in principle with the three automobile manufacturers provide that workers with seniority would benefit from a general increase of 25% over the duration of the agreements, with an initial increase of 11%. Including cost-of-living adjustments, they would get about 33% over four years and eight months, according to the union.
Thousands of UAW members walked off the job in targeted strikes in September against Detroit automakers for six weeks before tentative agreements were reached in late October.
Rather than strike against a single company, the union targeted certain factories of the three manufacturers. At its peak last month, about 46,000 of Detroit’s 146,000 union workers were on the picket lines.
Of the four GM plants where there was a walkout, only workers in Arlington, Texas, ratified the tentative agreement.