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4,000-plus from Valley prepare for Nov. 5 UAW vote
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
Pay increases across the workforce, traditional health care benefits for lower-tier workers and a strengthened moratorium on outsourcing are just some highlights of the United Auto Workers’ four-year tentative agreement with General Motors.
More than 52,000 GM workers across 63 U.S. facilities will review the contract with union leadership before casting a vote.
The 1,400 members of UAW Local 1714, who work at the fabrication plant at GM Lordstown, and 2,800 to 3,000 members of UAW Local 1112, who work at the assembly plant in Lordstown, will vote on the agreement Nov. 5. Voting will last 24 hours.
Union leadership will go over the agreement this Sunday.
Overall, Local 1112 President Glenn Johnson and Local 1714 President Robert Morales said they are pleased with the contract. The UAW National GM Council voted to pass the agreement on to workers instead of sending it back to the negotiating table Wednesday.
“I think they did a great job of negotiating for us,” Morales said of the UAW negotiating team.
Specifically, Morales was concerned about pay increases across the board for entry-level employees and traditional employees, and job security.
Johnson also wanted to see wages addressed, and he was surprised to see lower-tier workers will be able to receive traditional health care benefits.
“That was moving the bar in my observation,” Johnson said.
The contract eliminates a two-tier wage system over eight years. Recent hires are paid $15.78 per hour today. In the new agreement, workers with four or more years of experience will make the top $29 hourly wage within four years, and workers with less experience would make between $22.50 and $28 in four years and top wages in eight years.
Traditional members will receive a 3 percent wage increase for the first year; 4 percent lump sum in the second year; 3 percent wage increase in the third year; and a 4 percent lump sum for the last year.
All workers will get an $8,000 signing bonus if they ratify the contract.
The contract also strengthens the moratorium on outsourcing and extends the moratorium for the life of the 2015 national agreement.
GM identified potential investment of $1.9 billion in U.S. facilities during negotiations. This is in addition to previous investments equal to $6.4 billion. The new investment at a variety of locations, but not Lordstown, creates or retains 3,300 jobs.
“We believe this agreement achieves both income security and job security,” UAW International Union President Dennis Williams and Cindy Estrada, UAW GM department vice president and director, said in a statement on the contract summary.