The GM Flint UAW has narrowly voted against the new tentative agreement between the automaker and the union, causing concerns of a new strike.
A Facebook post by UAW Local 598, which represents the plant, showed a vote of 51% against the new contract.
GM Flint UAW voting results
The post is simply a letter with the final tally of the votes showing members turned down the new agreement without any comment from the UAW.
For the vote count, production workers voted 47.1% for and 52.8% against. Skilled trades workers voted 64.8% for it and 35.1% against the contract.
Based on the total members who voted, the results were 48.2% for and 51.8% against.
This plant has 4,746 employees and builds the Chevy Silverado HD, GMC Sierra Denali HD and Sierra HD in both crew cab and regular cab configurations.
The post has several comments, which state issues with the contract.
One comment specifically states: “It’s not the money. It’s the mandatory overtime, COLA not being immediate and for all hourly employees, including temps, it’s lack of an immediate end to tiers, it’s the 401K contribution not being on all payable hours, it’s the Doc 8 still out of control…too many issues still unresolved.”
Another comment adds: “We’ve been doing mandatory overtime for 8-10 years.”
Also, UAW Local 163 representing Romulus Powertrain voted against the tentative agreement according to ABC news 12.
Other UAW membership voting updates
With the tentative agreement ratified by the General Motors, Ford and Stellantis leadership committees, members now have their say on the “record contract” as UAW President Shawn Fain calls it.
On November 8, UAW members for the Ford Chicago Assembly plant voted 57% in favor of the contract according to Reuters.
A few days before the Michigan Assembly plant, UAW Local 900 and the first members to go on strike, voted overwhelmingly in favor with 82% of the vote for the agreement.
On November 9, UAW Local 1268 representing the Belvidere, Illinois, voted overwhelming in favor with 81% of production employees and 86% of skilled trades employees. This plant is currently closed and the new agreement calls for it to reopen to build a new midsize Ram truck.
Other UAW members are heading to the polls now with voting ongoing.
Non-UAW automakers affected
The 2023 UAW strike was aimed at the Detroit 3, but autoworkers at non-UAW plants will see some benefits.
For example, Toyota told its employees it will raise wages by 9% effective January 1, 2024, for hourly manufacturing workers. Other workers will see a raise as well.
This comes from an internal document that also said it is cutting the amount of time needed for U.S. production workers to reach top pay to 4 years down from 8 years.
Honda also said it is increasing its hourly workers pay by 11% effective on January 8, 2024, according to an internal document reported by Bloomberg.
The bottom line
As the famous New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over, until it’s over.” We are in wait-and-see mode as more UAW members vote and the final tally could be close.
