Toledo autoworkers are watching early ratification results coming in on the new United Auto Workers contract with General Motors, and they are yielding some surprises, including the rejection of the agreement by production workers at GM’s Flint Engine Plant.
UAW Local 659 in Flint announced Tuesday on Facebook that the engine plant’s production workers had turned down the contract by a ratio of 48-52 percent, though skilled trades workers at the same plant approved it.
GM autoworkers at another Michigan engine plant, GM’s Romulus Propulsion Systems, rejected the contract Tuesday by a 49-51 percent vote, UAW Local 163 announced. The plant, formerly Romulus Powertrain, employs 1,150 workers and makes V6 engines for a variety of GM models and a 10-speed transmission.
Flint Engine employs 651 people, according to the GM website. The plant performs assembly and machining for the 1.5-liter turbo engine in the Chevrolet Malibu and 3.0-liter turbo diesel using in the Chevrolet Silverado light-duty pickup and Tahoe SUV and their sister GMC vehicles, the Sierra pickup and Yukon SUV.
UAW Local 659 officials did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
The Flint local is one of the first of GM’s dozens of plants to hold its ratification vote. The 1,400 UAW-represented workers at GM’s Toledo Propulsion Systems, formerly Toledo Transmission, are scheduled to vote on the tentative agreement Sunday and Monday, said Tony Totty, president of UAW Local 14, which represents those workers.
The GM deal, like Ford’s and Stellantis’ before it, is the richest for workers in the company’s history and was expected to be a slam-dunk to be approved, said Harley Shaiken, professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley and former GM autoworker.
Mr. Shaiken speculated that Flint Engine has an older work force that might have disliked the raise for retirees as the employees themselves approach retirement.
The pension raise, the first of any kind in 20 years, adds $150 per month to a pensioner with 30 years of service. It is slated to rise to $1,740 per month from $1,590.
“Given the historic nature of the agreement and the way it has been so positively covered, that is surprising,” Mr. Shaiken said of the Flint Engine rejection.
Overall, UAW Local 659 approved ratification because of positive votes at its other voting units, including a metal fabrication operation, parts plant, and engineering shop.
The tentative agreement is historic because it contains a 25 percent wage increase over the 4½-year term of the contract, restoration of cost-of-living protections, and a much faster path to permanent employment for new hires and temporary employees. GM has 47,000 UAW-represented employees in the United States.
The tentative agreement was reached after a six-week strike of select plants and operations of GM, Ford, and Stellantis. The strike of GM was expected to cost the automaker about $1 billion in lost production.
Mr. Totty said about 450 employees came to the union hall Monday to listen to presentations about what’s in the agreement and to ask questions of local and international UAW officials.
First Published November 7, 2023, 6:54 p.m.
