Advertisement

GM, UAW deal ratified in a close vote

Autoworkers narrowly voted to approve a new labor deal with automaker General Motors (GM), with just 54.7% in favor ahead of a 4pm Friday deadline. The Arlington, Texas GM plant backed the agreement following earlier rejections at other large facilities. However, dissatisfaction persists among longtime GM factory workers over issues like wages and temporary worker benefits under the contract terms. Ford (F) and Stellantis (STLA) union members continue voting on their own tentative agreements.

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian analyzes the split ratification vote and ongoing votes at Ford and Stellantis.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

- It was a vote that came down to the wire. Closer than expected for the historic tentative contract between the UAW and GM, and here with the details is Yahoo Finance's, Pras Subramanian. So, Pras, down to the wire here.

ADVERTISEMENT

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah. I mean, it's official. GM-UAW members voted to approve the deal. Slim majority here according to the UAW-GM vote tracker, 54.7% to 45.3%. A lot closer than what people thought. Ford and Stellantis right now are in the mid 60s. They haven't yet gotten their full voting in yet. So a turning point came yesterday when a big plan, Arlington, Texas, voted for the deal.

This followed a number of big plants voting against the deal with the deadline looming today at 4:00 PM. Those votes were in so good-- everyone's celebrating there for GM and the UAW. But if you're a union-- if you're the union, you got to look into why some of these workers were upset about the deal.

I spoke to an expert about it and he said that a lot of the older workers believed that they weren't getting what they originally had back before the Great Financial Crisis. And they think that the new deal sort of shortchanged them to the extent that temporary workers get huge bonuses, big lifts in pay, and they think it's sort of unfair for them to not get that.

So I think the leadership will look into what plants sort of had the biggest negative votes. What's the split of workers there? Older versus younger. Temp versus permanent. Ford and Stellantis doesn't don't have that issue with a lot of temp workers. So I think that might be what's keeping them kind of afloat more than the GM vote.