UAW Strike Ends with Higher Wages, Better Benefits for Auto Workers

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, center left, stands for pictures with the Rev. J
John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The United Auto Workers (UAW) will end its strike against the Big Three as the labor union has reportedly reached a tentative agreement with General Motors (GM). The UAW had, in the last few days, reached similar deals with Ford and Stellantis.

On Monday morning, reports circulated that the UAW had reached a deal with GM. According to details available, the deal mimics many components of the union’s deal with Ford, where base wages will increase 25 percent through April 2028.

Likewise, the deal reinstates benefits that GM’s auto workers have not enjoyed since the Great Recession, such as cost-of-living allowances, a three-year wage progression, and an elimination of wage tiers among union workers.

Perhaps most significant is the UAW’s persistence in demanding higher wages for auto workers at GM’s Ultium Cells plant in Warren, Ohio, which produces batteries for Electric Vehicles (EVs). Union leadership had long complained that auto workers were moved to the plant and had their wages slashed almost in half, from $30 an hour to just $16.50 an hour.

As part of the deal, auto workers at Ultium Cells will see 11 percent wage hikes. Auto workers will also be able to transfer to EV battery plants or EV production plants when jobs become available.

The UAW’s deals with Stellantis and Ford also secured 25 percent in base wage increases through April 2028 as well as cost-of-living allowances and an incremental right to strike for auto workers whenever the automakers close a plant.

Still unclear is how auto workers will fare amid President Joe Biden’s EV mandates for the auto industry.

Most recently, auto executives at a number of companies said they were delaying or abandoning their decisions to speedily abide by the administration’s green energy agenda — a choice made as Americans are increasingly turned off by EVs.

Auto workers have been sounding the alarm on Biden’s rapid transition to EVs for some time. Production of EVs takes far less manpower and forces the United States to rely on China for critical materials needed to make the vehicles’ batteries.

The results, as Breitbart News has detailed, would mean fewer American auto jobs and lower wages for auto workers.

RELATED — WATCH: Tesla Engulfed in Flames After Battery “Spontaneously Caught Fire”

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District via Storyful

 

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

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