GM-UAW tentative pact merits speedy ratification

With picket signs neatly in place and picket lines nearly on pace, some 52,000 nail- biting General Motors Co. workers girded themselves to walk off their jobs when the clock struck 12 late Sunday. Fortunately for all parties involved, a tentative agreement averting a potentially disastrous and destructive walkout was ironed out mere minutes before the deadline kicked in.

Negotiators for both the United Auto Workers and GM are to be commended for finishing the task just in the nick of time. The last thing that GM, the nation and the Mahoning Valley needed would have been a strike by tens of thousands of autoworkers.

Each could have suffered severe harm. GM, still reeling from the scandal surrounding its cover-up of ignition failures in millions of its vehicles, would have its image stained anew, just as it has finally robustly recovered from the ill winds that thrust it into bankruptcy protection several years ago. Indeed the automaker announced last week it had posted a record $3.1 billion adjusted profit for the third quarter of 2015. A potential production shutdown could have knocked that path of profit and progress recklessly off track.

For the nation, a work stoppage by a large and key element of the manufacturing foundation of the United States would have ripple effects on virtually all segments of an economy already struggling to gain strong momentum seven years after the Great Recession.

Those effects would have been even more pronounced in the Mahoning Valley, where the sprawling GM Lordstown Complex reigns as the largest employer and where hundreds of other businesses depend on the plant and its workers for their livelihoods.

Fortunately, it now looks as if such dire consequences will be averted as UAW leaders – including Glenn Johnson and Robert Morales representing the two large UAW locals in Lordstown – endorsed the tentative agreement Wednesday. They, too, merit commendation for understanding the high stakes and recommending that the tentative four-year deal win approval from the rank and file.

Now it is up to those rank-and-file members to seal the deal with their votes of support in the coming days. Ratification votes in Lordstown will take place next Thursday and Friday. Lordstown workers will get a detailed briefing on the tentative pact at 10 a.m. Sunday at a meeting at Lordstown High School.

SWEET DEAL FOR WORKERS

From our vantage point, we see little reason for rejection of the deal, one reportedly much sweeter for workers than the contract recently ratified for the 40,000 employees of Fiat-Chrysler in this country. Although full and complete details have yet to be made public, reports indicate that new perks for GM autoworkers abound and include:

An $8,000 signing bonus as a sign of gratitude from the company for accepting the draft deal.

Increased wages averaging 7 percent through the life of the contract, gradual elimination of the two-tiered wage scales and increased profit-sharing bonuses.

$1.9 billion in new investments to create or retain more than 3,300 jobs companywide.

For the company, a finalized deal will add fuel to the amazingly strong comeback the automaker has achieved in recent years, a comeback felt profoundly at Lordstown where the top-selling and critically acclaimed Chevrolet Cruze is manufactured. Settlement also avoids the public castigation of the company and its workers that a job walkout typically generates.

For the nation, a done deal means the recovering yet fragile economy will not be smashed with a tsunami of turbulence that would ripple into many ancillary industries.

In short, the tentative GM-UAW four-year contract agreement represents a win-win for the automaker, its workers and GM-reliant communities across the country. Once again, the old cliche rings true: What’s good for GM is good for the country.

We’re therefore confident GM workers here and across the nation will recognize as much by overwhelmingly giving the tentative deal an unequivocal thumbs-up during ratification voting next week.