Negotiating a Wage Increase and COLA Agreement with the General Motors Workers in the 2019 Auto Workers’ Union Strike Agreement (WoF)

The strike has roiled the auto industry, costing each company hundreds of millions of dollars each week in lost production and throwing the industry’s shift to electric vehicles on ice. There is more pressure on the union and GM to reach a deal because of an agreement with Ford.

According to preliminary reports, Ford agreed to a 25 percent increase in wages, plus cost of living increases, that will bump the pay increase over 30 percent to over $40 an hour. The deal is still subject to approval by the union’s membership.

“Between wage increases, COLA [cost of living adjustments], annual bonuses to retirees, and other economic gains, there is more value for our members in each individual year of this agreement than the entirety of the 2019 agreement,” UAW vice president Chuck Browning said in a video. The deal puts a bigger amount on the table compared to the one in 2019.

With a tentative deal in place, the company would be calling 20,000 employees back to work and restarting plants in Kentucky, Michigan, and Chicago, as well as sending full lineup of vehicles to customers again.

Ford spends tens of billions of dollars every year on the EV transition, including the construction of four new EV battery plants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan. The factories are in partnerships with a Chinese battery company.

Negotiating Collectively with the Auto Workers in the Era of General Motors and the Largest Automobile Linear p-p Colliders

Included as well in the tentative deal is a three-year progression for full-time employees to the top wage, improvement to retirement benefits, and the right to strike over plant closures, which would mark a first for the union.

The UAWA expanded its strike at the largest plants of each of the automakers this week, which is likely to cause GM and Stellantis to reach tentative deals as well.

In addition, more than 3,000 workers laid off by Ford in what the company called a ripple effect of the strike are also expected to be back on the job.

Biden said that it shows how collective bargaining works by putting workers a seat at the table and giving them opportunities to improve their lives.