GM reaches tentative deal with UAW, ending widespread six-week autoworkers’ strike

The United Autoworkers reached a tentative agreement Monday with General Motors, wrapping up a six-week strike that affected the Big Three U.S. automakers and sent nearly 50,000 workers to the picket lines. 

The deal, which has yet to be officially announced, came two days after the UAW expanded its strike against GM to its Spring Hill, Tennessee factory, surprising industry watchers. GM has yet to confirm the deal and declined to comment. However, sources who spoke to TechCrunch along with numerous other media outlets have said a tentative deal was reached Monday morning.

UAW reached a tentative deal with Ford on October 25. Days later, the UAW reached a tentative agreement with Stellantis, the automaker that owns Jeep, Ram and Chrysler.

All three tentative agreements must be approved by UAW-represented workers in ratification votes. While details of the GM and Stellantis agreements are still vague, the UAW has made its bargaining contract with Ford publicly available. If GM and Stellantis’ agreements align with Ford — which is the expectation — it would mean historic and record contracts for workers.

The Ford agreement gives workers gains worth more than four times what was agreed in the 2019 contract. The UAW said the gains in each individual year of this agreement are worth more than the entirety of the gains in the last contract and has more general wage increases than Ford workers have received in the past 22 years combined, according to the UAW.

That translates to 150% pay increases for the lowest-paid temporary workers and cost-of-living adjustments that by 2028 will bring the top rate for production work to more than $42 an hour and more than $50 for skilled trades — more than a 30% raise. The tentative 865-page bargaining agreement is chock full of other wins for UAW workers, including future EV programs.