UAW Local 2250 members learn specifics of tentative GM agreement

By SHERI GASSAWAY
Missouri Correspondent

After a more than six-week strike, UAW Local 2250 members at the GM Assembly Plant in Wentzville learned specific about the tentative UAW/GM agreement last week and were scheduled to vote this week on ratification of the contract.

UAW President Shawn Fain shared some of the details in a Nov. 4 Facebook Live video to members.

‘BILLIONS IN CONTRACT GAINS’
“Through the power of our picket lines and the credible threats of more strikes to come, we were able to wrench back so much of what these companies have stolen from us over the past few decades,” Fain said in the video. “We won back billions in contract gains. We won back our dignity as autoworkers. We won back our pride in being UAW.”

The UAW Stand Up Strike – the first ever targeting all three U.S. automakers – began Sept. 15 and included a series of rolling strikes at the Big Three. UAW Local 2250 was among the first group of auto workers to walk out.

CONTRACT HIGHLIGHTS
The GM contract is similar to the tentative deals announced with Ford and Stellantis and would run through April 2028. Some highlights of the contract include:

• A 25 percent wage increase over the four-and-a-half-year contract, with members to receive an 11 percent increase immediately, three percent over the next three years and five percent in the last year.
• A $5,000 ratification bonus.
• The revival of cost-of-living adjustments.
• A shorter timeline to reach top wage.

The tentative agreement also charts a pathway for employees at future battery plants to become unionized under the union’s master agreement.

‘IT’S A GOOD CONTRACT’
“Overall, it’s a good contract, especially when you look at where we were and where we would be with the new terms,” said Glenn Kage, former Local 2250 president and current chairman of the Local 2250 Community Action Program. “It’s hard to argue with a 25 percent wage increase, the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments and additional contributions to our 401(k) plans.”

Members will learn the schedule for voting on the contract in the coming days.

FUTURE ORGANIZING GOALS
Assuming the contracts are ratified by members at the Big Three, the UAW plans to focus its efforts on organizing workers at other automakers in the nation.

“We aren’t bashful or quiet about what our plans are: Our goal is to spend the next few years organizing auto workers across this country,” Fain said. “The Big Three aren’t the only auto companies making record profits. Auto workers at Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Tesla… they deserve record contracts, too. And we’re going to do everything we can to support them in the fight to win what they deserve.”