The deal, which includes improvements in pay for new employees, promises that the company will bring full-time temporary workers on permanently, and mandatory raises for the next four years, passed this week after being voted on by GM’s 47,000 workers. Workers will also get an $11,000 signing bonus.
More than 23,000 voted to approve the deal, about 57 percent of the 40,000 who participated.
One of those was Martin Tutwiler, 42, a GM employee in Warren, Mich, who described the deal as both a compromise and a win.
“Every contract you’re going to have your issues,” said Martin Tutwiler, 42, a GM employee in Warren, Mich. “You’re not going to get everything you want. But you look at it as a whole and see if you can live with it.”
Workers could be back at factories as soon as Saturday, ending picket lines, which have been staffed round-the-clock by workers at GM plants from West Virginia to Texas.
Employees began the strike Sept. 16, saying they wanted a more equitable contract as General Motors reaps near-record profits but continues to shutter plants in the United States. Many said the company’s growing use of temporary workers — including many who’ve worked for years alongside permanent employees for significantly less pay and fewer benefits — was of significant concern, as is the wage system GM instituted after the recession, which required a lengthy period — eight years — for workers to “grow in” to full hourly pay.
Tutwiler said he hoped that the fight’s biggest impact would extend beyond GM. He said the union’s show of strength — the six-week walkout is one of the largest in the past 30 years — would inspire other workers pushing for change around the country.
The action comes amid a surge in the number of workers participating in strikes. In 2018, the most recent year for which statistics are available, nearly 500,000 walked off their jobs, the highest number since 1986, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Though the number of unionized workers has been falling for decades, the strikes have given unions a sense of energy and momentum, amid a larger national discussion about equality and fairness. Other unions, as well as more informal groups of organized workers, say they are paying attention.
Last week, 25,000 teachers in Chicago began a strike that has canceled classes in the country’s third-largest public school district. Some union organizers there said they had been watching the GM situation closely.

See also : General Motors • Grève • United Auto Workers • Texas


The length of the UAW strike — the longest at GM since 1973 — exacted a cost for both the company, workers who have forgone regular paychecks, and related businesses from the Midwest into Canada and Mexico which experienced layoffs.
The auto giant has lost more than $1 billion in earnings, while workers have forfeited $835 million in wages, though the signing bonus will wipe out the lost earnings for most, East Lansing consultancy the Anderson Economic Group estimates.
“I’m ready to go back to work,” said Vanessa Banks, president of UAW Local 1590, which represents GM workers at a plant in Martinsburg, W.Va.