LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — UAW President Shawn Fain and Vice President Mike Booth in a livestream video Saturday outlined the union’s tentative agreement with General Motors.

“We were able to wrench back so much of what these companies have stolen from us over the past few decades,” Fain said in the live stream from Detroit at noon. “Part of our strength came from all three of our contracts expiring at once, and taking on three companies at once.”

The wage, benefit and cost-of-living agreements in the tentative agreement with GM include:

  • 25% wage increase over the life of the agreement (11% upon ratification; 3% over each of the next 3 years; 5% in Sept. 2027)
  • Workers won back Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)
  • Shortened progression to top wage from 8 years to 3 years
  • By the end of this contract, the starting base wage for GM members will increase by about 70%–from about $18.04/hour to about $30.60/hour, with an estimated COLA
  • The top wage will increase by about 33%–from $32.32/hour to $42.95/hour
  • Workers who will now receive the main production rate of pay include GM Components Holdings workers, Customer Care and Aftersales workers and workers at GM Brownstown.
  • At ratification, all full-time, temporary workers at GM with at least 90 days of employment will be converted to seniority employees.
  • Full-time temporary workers will be automatically converted to seniority employees at 9 months; time spent as a temporary worker will be counted toward their progression.
  • Ultium Cells employees will become GM employees and will be covered by the UAW-GM national agreement, with a few locally bargained supplements.
  • Workers win the right to strike over plant closures, outsourcing and product disinvestment.
  • GM will make five payments of $500 to current retirees and surviving spouses.

Fain and Booth emphasized the comparative gains in the tentative agreement. “The gains in this contract are worth more than four times the last contract,” Booth said. That amounts to more in wage increases over this contract than all of the wage increases combined over the previous 22 years.

When it comes to GM, Fain said, the tentative agreement with the automaker is of particular importance. “Over the last 20 years, GM has closed nearly twice the number of plants as Ford and Stellantis combined,” the UAW president said.

Fain said in the livestream that UAW’s organizing efforts for auto workers won’t end with the Big Three.

“Our goal is to spend the next few years organizing auto workers across this country,” Fain said. “The Big Three aren’t the only auto companies making record profits. Auto workers at Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Tesla, they deserve record contracts too. And we’re going to do everything that we can to support them in the fight to win what they deserve.”

UAW members will vote on whether to ratify the tentative agreement with GM.