UAW members at GM ratify new contract

USA: Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) employed at General Motors' plants in the U.S. have voted in favour of ratifying a new four-year contract that commits GM to produce new products at existing US facilities and bans plant closings and outsourcing of work for the life of the agreement.

The new agreement was approved by 66 per cent of production workers and 64 per cent of skilled trades workers.

Other contract details include:

• Workers will receive a $3,000 signing bonus followed by a lump sum bonus of 3% or 4% for each year of the contract in lieu of a wage increase.

• GM will make about 3,000 temporary employees permanent at the current assembly wage.

• Retirees will receive both an increase in basic pension benefits and a lump-sum payment in the first year of the agreement.

• Entry-level workers at GM in non-core job classifications such as material movement, general stores management, and kitting and sequencing, will be paid under a new, lower wage and benefit structure.

• GM will contribute more than $35 billion to a new Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA), to be managed by the UAW, which will establish an independent trust fund to pay retiree health benefits. The trust will cover current retirees and current active workers.

• GM will contribute $15 million towards the establishment of the National Institute for Health Care Reform, a joint labour-management effort to improve the affordability, accessibility and accountability of the U.S. health care system.

The new contract covers more than 73,000 active workers at GM and more than 269,000 GM retirees and 69,000 surviving spouses. It will expire on Sept. 14, 2011.

The UAW has yet to reach a contract agreement with the other two American automakers, Chrysler and Ford. The union and Chrysler reached a settlement Oct. 10 after a six-hour strike, however the agreement must still win approval from the rank-and-file. Talks with Ford continue.