GM DEAL GAINING STEAM

Plants give green light

Unionized workers at several major General Motors factories have voted to back a proposed labor contract, an encouraging sign for United Auto Workers leaders under pressure to get a deal approved and end a six-week nationwide strike.

A majority of UAW-represented workers in Flint and Lansing, Mich. — where GMhas manufacturing operations employing more than 6,000 blue-collar workers — cast ballots in favor of the tentative agreement, according to results posted by the union online. The deal was struck last week by UAWand GMbargainers.

Workers at a transmission factory in Toledo, Ohio, also have overwhelmingly voted in support of the new labor accord, along with members at a number of smaller plants that build engines and parts and supply other materials to GM’s US assembly factories.

The new labor pact offers GM’s UAW members wage increases, hefty signing bonuses and no changes to their health-care contributions — all gains that union leaders are holding up as wins for the membership. But GM will move forward with closing three US factories and made no commitments to relocate factory work to the US from Mexico as union officials had hoped, a disappointment to many workers.

Final results are expected Friday evening. Union workers at several other major assembly operations, including truck plants in Texas, Indiana and Missouri, were to vote Thursday and Friday. UAW locals representing more than onethird of GM’s factory workers had reported results as of Thursday afternoon. A simple majority is required to approve the deal.

UAW leaders did experience some setbacks: GM factory workers in Bowling Green, Ky., and Spring Hill, Tenn., rejected the proposed contract. Members at a handful of other parts operations have also turned down the deal, signaling officials could still face challenges in winning broad support for agreement.

Many workers say they have mixed feelings but are willing to vote yes, concerned about the financial impact of prolonging the nationwide strike or that sending bargainers back to the table could be a gamble that isn’t likely to result in a much better deal.

“I just want to go back to work,” said Stu Smith, an assembly-line worker at GM’s vehicle factory in Flint, one of GM’s largest plants, with 4,800 hourly workers. More than 60 percent of UAW members at the Flint assembly plant voted to support the deal, according to results made public by the union hall there.