Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have voted to ratify the tentative labor deal with General Motors, becoming the first group of unionized workers at one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers to approve a new labor contract.
The UAW’s ratification vote tracker for GM showed approval of the contract leading by a roughly 55% to 45% margin with nearly 36,000 votes cast out of the company’s roughly 46,000 GM workers who are represented by the UAW. Voting is set to close Thursday at 4 p.m. Eastern.
The UAW confirmed to FOX Business that the results recorded in its vote tracker indicated the ratification of the GM contract. The vote makes GM the first of the Big Three automakers where union members approved the tentative labor deals that were agreed to with the UAW roughly two weeks ago. Ratification votes at Ford and Stellantis are ongoing.
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Seven of GM’s 11 assembly plants voted to turn down the deal, but its largest assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, approved the contract, as did assembly plants in Detroit; Fairfax, Kansas; and Lake Orion, Michigan.
UAW members at GM will get a 25% increase in their base wage through April 2028, while the top wage will rise by 33% with cost-of-living adjustments estimated to raise it to over $42 an hour.
The UAW’s strike against the Big Three was in its sixth week when the automakers and the union reached tentative agreements that are now in the ratification process. The union’s "stand up strike" involved specific locals being asked to go on strike at their facilities.
Over 45,000 union autoworkers were on strike at its peak and the strike cost the automakers billions of dollars.
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The ongoing ratification votes at Ford and Stellantis are currently on pace for approval by a wider margin than GM. About 67% of Ford’s UAW members have voted in favor of the new contract, with voting set to conclude on Friday, while 66% of Stellantis workers are in favor, with voting set to close on Tuesday.
FOX Business's Philip Bodinet and Reuters contributed to this report.