GM Agrees to Tentative Deal With Autoworkers After Latest Strike at Its Largest Plant

After 45 days of targeted, rolling strikes against General Motors, the company has reportedly agreed to a tentative deal with the striking United Auto Workers union.

The labor contract is similar to the deal signed by Ford Motor Co. last week — which the UAW's leadership hailed as a "record" agreement — a person familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg, which first reported the deal. The other Big Three automaker, Stellantis, reached a tentative deal with the UAW over the weekend.

The GM agreement must now be voted on by the union's national council on GM; should those leaders approve the contract, it will be sent to the 47,000 UAW members employed by the company to vote on ratification.

The pending deal includes 25% general wage hikes and cost-of-living allowances over the four-and-a-half-year, Bloomberg reported. Both Stellantis NV's and Ford's contracts with the UAW have included similar provisions, which would boost pay raises for most workers to more than 30%, according to the union.

The deal will also likely include concessions related to the transition to electric vehicles and the plants that manufacture batteries for them. GM has previously agreed to include EV battery plant workers under its national contract with the UAW; the automaker plans to build four battery plants through joint ventures with two companies.

More than 17,000 workers are striking against four of GM's assembly complexes — including its "moneymaker" Arlington Assembly Plant in Texas — and 18 parts distribution centers across the U.S. The UAW escalated its strike actions against the automaker on Saturday to include GM's $3.6 billion manufacturing plant in Tennessee — which is also the company's largest plant in North America — even as it announced its agreement with Stellantis.

About 2,500 workers at GM's facilities across the country — including 1,600 at the idled Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas — have been furloughed since strikes began.

Last week, GM told investors it had lost $800 million from the UAW's strikes. Previous estimates had said the union's strikes have cost the automotive industry and consumers $9.3 billion in economic losses, according to the East Lansing, Michigan-based Anderson Economic Group.