United Auto Workers announced on Friday that it has presented a new counteroffer to General Motors (GM) and is waiting for the carmaker to accept it. If it does, the two parties will reach a tentative agreement.
Strikes continue amidst ongoing talks
The UAW strike entered its 26th day with the union providing a counteroffer to GM. The union was unhappy with the offer provided by GM. The automaker suggested that the two parties continue round the clock negotiation and the union insisted that its subcommittees are deliberating on numerous issues.
Terry Dittes, the president of the UAW, wrote a letter to the union members saying that the negotiations with GM will take place during the weekends as well and they will seek a tentative agreement with the automaker. Dittes wrote,
“Brothers and Sisters, your support and perseverance have provided this entire bargaining team with the energy to keep pushing and fighting for you, your families, your communities and all the working men and women in this country.”
What does GM want?
On Thursday, before the UAW offer was released, Scott Sandefur, the Vice President of North America – Labor Relations for GM said that the union failed to reply promptly to its Monday offer. He is in charge of the day-to-day negotiations from GM’s side and said that the lives of the company’s employees are being affected because of the strikes. The two parties met on Wednesday with GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra and UAW President Gary Jones in attendance.
According to the latest offer from GM, the company wishes to invest $9 billion in the US, of which $7.7 billion will be directly invested in the company’s plants. The rest will be directed towards its joint ventures. Earlier, it offered to invest a total of $7 billion in the US. It said that it is ready to increase on-time payments and wages of the employees and is also willing to preserve best-in-industry healthcare benefits to the workers.
The union earlier said that it wants a bigger portion of the company’s profits and GM suggests that it is ready to do so and will even provide a bigger ratification bonus to the workers. The company also offered to create an onboarding process for temporary workers to become permanent employees and get a ramification bonus as well.
The response from GM on Friday’s offer by UAW is yet to be released.
