The United Auto Workers union and General Motors reportedly are closing in on a tentative agreement that could soon end the union’s now 11-days strike against the automaker.
Negotiators have been meeting daily since before the work stoppage began on 16 September, however talks between the two sides have intensified in the past 24 to 48 hours, CNBC said, citing “two people familiar with the negotiations”.
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By GlobalDataA letter on Wednesday from UAW vice president Terry Dittes to members confirmed progress had been made this week as roughly 48,000 union workers picketed outside the automaker’s US plants for the 10th day.
Dittes in the letter said all unsettled proposals are now at the “Main Table and have been presented to General Motors and we are awaiting their responses”. He said the “back and forth will continue until negotiations are complete”, CNBC reported
The CNBC sources said having all of the issues at the “Main Table” and not in subcommittees is typically a sign that a tentative deal could be imminent as long as the talks don’t come apart over any major sticking points.
Depending on the how far apart the sides are on the issues, like pay and temporary workers, that could take hours or days, the sources said.
“We will continue to bargain this contract until your bargaining committee is satisfied that we have achieved an agreement that properly addresses our members’ concerns,” Dittes said in the letter cited by CNBC.
In response to the letter, GM said negotiators “continue to meet and our goal remains to reach an agreement that builds a stronger future for our employees and our business”.
GM’s use of temporary workers and keeping plants open that have been slated for closure have been among the major sticking points, according to CNBC sources.
“The intensification of talks to around-the-clock bargaining and at the main table should mean that they’re in striking distance of reaching an agreement,” Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labour and economics at the Center for Automotive Research, told CNBC. “But there’s still a long way to go once they reach that agreement.”
After a proposed deal is reached, the union has to take the agreement to the GM-UAW council, CNBC noted, which includes local union leaders, and then to members to approve. That process typically takes two weeks, however that could be speeded up if the union decides to keep workers on strike during the voting.
Ratification of tentative agreements traditionally hasn’t been a problem, according to the report. However workers with Fiat Chrysler four years ago rejected the initial deal approved by UAW leaders which sent negotiators back to the table.
Ahead of the current negotiations, industry analysts cautioned the ratification of any agreement could be challenging as a federal corruption probe reaches into the UAW’s highest ranks.
UAW members with GM have been on strike since 16 September after the two sides failed to reach a deal by a 14 September deadline.
It is the union’s first national strike against the automaker since a two-day work stoppage in 2007 and the longest national strike since the 1970s.
Separately, the New York Times reported GM’s contract offer to the union reportedly includes a plan for a battery factory in the region of the recently shuttered assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
The paper said the automaker had proposed building a new plant in Ohio to produce batteries for some of the 1m electric cars it hopes to sell globally by 2026.
The plant would be near the Lordstown factory where car making ended last March. It would create several hundred jobs in the hard hit region, and give the union a foothold in the industry’s coming transition to electric vehicles, the Times said.
Citing sources familiar with the outlines of the offer, the paper said the plant would probably pay about US$17 an hour, well below the $31 an hour that many assembly workers earned in Lordstown. The operation would be under a separate contract. And the work force would be far smaller than the more than 3,000 who once assembled the Chevrolet Cruze there.
