Joe Biden hails reported UAW deal with General Motors to end strike

The United Auto Workers’ six-week strike against the US’s three largest automakers appeared to be coming to an end on Monday as the union brokered a deal with General Motors.

The agreement follows on the heels of deals with Ford and Stellantis, brokered in the past few days, effectively ending the first simultaneous strike against the three Detroit automakers.

The UAW strike has been the largest by car workers in decades, and has proved an unusual political flashpoint, with Donald Trump and Joe Biden supporting workers over the car companies.

Biden lauded the reported agreement reached with GM. “I think it’s great,” said Biden, who has touted himself as pro-union.

“Today’s historic agreement is yet another piece of good economic news, showing something I’ve always believed: worker power is critical to building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, and so is economic growth,” Biden said during an event at the White House.

After the union reached a tentative agreement with Ford last week, Stellantis reached an agreement with similar contract terms on Saturday, and General Motors followed suit on Monday. The agreements include 25% wage increases for workers over the life of the contract and cost-of-living adjustments.

The union also won shortened wage progression scales, ended lower-paying wage tiers, and secured the reopening of Stellantis’s plant in Belvidere, Illinois, which closed down earlier this year.

The UAW president, Shawn Fain, surprised the automakers in September when, rather than all work