UAW President Shawn Fain lays out union agreement with GM

DETROIT (FOX 2) - United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain spoke Satruday afternoon to highlight the union's tentative agreement with General Motors, the last of the Detroit Big Three to come to a deal with the union.

GM's deal follows the pattern set with Ford last week and Stellantis made last weekend. 

What's in the GM deal

The UAW said the deal includes a 25% wage increase that rises up to 33% when accounting for inflation. The max pay will be more than $42 an hour. The agreement also includes an end to wage tiers, while bringing two prospective battery plants being brought under the Master Agreement.

Fain said there are some who are unhappy with the deal with the Detroit Big Three and that he was aware there were many critics of the standup strike strategy.

"One of the former big three execs was so disgusted by the success of our stand-up strategy, he called it a gun to the head of auto companies. That's what they think of autoworkers getting their fair share," Fain said.

The UAW leader then went on to call for other unions to follow the UAW's example.

"We need workers everywhere across this country to organize on the job," Fain said.

The deal, once ratified, will expire on April 30, 2028. This was intentional, Fain said, so that the union will use May 1 - May Day - as a day to rally for more workers' rights.

He then promised to support workers at other automotive companies as well. He said that the contracts expiring on the same day was leverage for the union.

"Part of our strength came from all three contracts expiring at once and taking on all three companies at once," Fain said.

Fain was joined by UAW Vice President Mike Booth who touted the efforts against GM.

"This contract has wages and economic gains unlike anything we've ever seen before," he said.

Upon ratification, GM workers get a pay raise of 11%. They'll get 3% each year in 2024, 2025, and 2026. In 2027, that will increase to 5%.

"Not only have we raised our wages, we have dramatically decreased the time it takes to get to top pay," Fain said.

With the deal, it will now take just three years to reach the top pay scale at GM and, by the end of the contract, the starting base wage will increase by 70% from $18.04 to $30.60 per hour

"We made enormous strides. At GM, we did more to eliminate wage tiers than any of the Big Three," Fain said.

The UAW president said the union flex their muscles over the past six weeks and that peoeple are noticing.

"We just showed everyone from the companies to the public to even ourselves, the real power of a strike. When we take action and hit companies where it hurts, the impossible becomes possible," Fain said.

He stressed the deal was even more needed with GM as it has closed more facilities over the past 20 years than Ford and Stellantis combined.

"GM knows we won't hesitate to strike if we need to," Fain said.

The rank-and-file members of the UAW will ultimately vote on the deal, which Booth said they ultimately will be the ones to put an end to the strike.

"You are the highest authority in our union and you will decide what happens next," Booth said.

Fain wrapped up his comments by bringing up the increasing car prices, which he said some are trying to blame on the union's efforts.

"Car prices are way up but it's not because of worker wages, low inventory, or anything but corporate greed. In the past four years, the average price of a new car is up by 30 % and more," Fain said. "Those profits are not passed on to the workers. Instead, they went straight to the pockets of shareholders and corporate executives."

Fain said companies are getting rich off the union's labor and are going to use the strike as a reason to raise prices even more – while saying the union is to blame – urging people not to fall for it. 

"They are using our contract as ane excuse to raise prices and then scapegoating our union in the process. It's a win-win strategy. They can price gouge consumers and demonize the union for having a fair share," he said. "The vast majority of us are all one group: the working class. we make the cars, we buy the cars, and we pay the taxes and we're not falling for it."

In the same week that the UAW and GM reached the tentative agreement, the automaker also announced raises to all non-union salaried workers.

Non-union, salaried GM workers to get 3.5% raise with 401K benefit increase

In a statement from CEO Mary Barra earlier this week, the GM Chair said they achieved a tentative agreement with the UAW "that reflects the contributions of the team while enabling us to continue to invest in our future and provide good jobs in the U.S."

"We are looking forward to having everyone back to work across all of our operations, delivering great products for our customers, and winning as one team," the statement added

As the automakers reached tentative deals, the union suspended its strikes and pulled workers off the picket lines while the deals go through a process to get them approved.

That process includes being reviewed by a UAW National Council that votes to send the agreement to the membership. Once the council votes, members attend informational sessions to learn about the agreements before voting to ratify them.

All three councils met this week to start the voting process.

If the councils vote to send the deals to members, union leadership will hold a Facebook Live that same evening to go over the highlights of the contracts.

If union members do not approve the contracts, the strike will continue as automakers and the UAW head back to the bargaining table.