United Auto Workers members on strike picket outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant on Sept. 25, 2019 in Detroit.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
DETROIT – The United Auto Workers’ proposed tentative deal with General Motors includes the closure of three U.S. plants, including a large assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, according to the union.
The plants had been earmarked in November to end production this year, but the Detroit automaker had to negotiate the closures as part of contract negotiations with the union.
A fourth plant in Detroit that was also slated for closure, as previously reported by CNBC, will be spared to build a new all-electric pickup for the automaker, if the deal is ratified.
The agreement would also pay most union members an $11,000 “ratification” bonus once the contract is signed. Temporary workers, who have a shortened path to become permanent employees as part of the deal, would receive $4,500 ratification bonuses.
Local union leaders and UAW members still must approve the deal, which could end the union’s 32-day strike against the company. About 200 local union leaders are meeting in Detroit on Thursday to vote on the proposed deal as well as decide whether workers will return to work during an expected weeks-long voting process for members.
Shares of GM were trading slightly down Thursday after opening at $36.81. The stock, which had fallen by double digits during the strike, is currently down by about 4% since Sept.13 — the last trading day before workers started picketing.
Other details of the deal, according to a summary from the union, include 3% wage increases in the second and fourth years and 4% lump sum bonuses in the first and third years for eligible permanent manufacturing employees.
The deal also includes all workers achieving top pay of more than $32 an hour within the next four years, down from an eight-year period as part of a previous deal in 2015.
UAW members also would maintain their health insurance, which is considered “gold standard” and requires employees to cover roughly 3% of the total costs, according to one person familiar with the talks.
