A week after they walked off the job in a nationwide strike that lasted two days, UAW members began to vote on the union’s tentative contract with GM on Monday. If union members approve the contract, within the next four years the automaker could close as many as four more factories than it previously announced.

Ratification votes on the agreement between the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and General Motors, Corp. (GM) are expected to conclude by Wednesday, Oct. 10, according to the UAW. However, the UAW GM National Council — composed of presidents and bargaining chairs from more than 80 GM facilities across the nation — has voted to unanimously recommend ratification of the 2007 tentative agreement with GM.

If members of the UAW union approve a tentative contract that union leaders say will save jobs, within the next four years GM could close four more factories than it previously announced. Under the tentative contract reached, 15 plants either have no new products assigned to them or their main new work is “demand and business case dependent,” reports The Associated Press.

According to The New York Times:

An engine plant in Livonia, near Detroit, would close in 2010, according to the text of the contract, which U.A.W. members began to review over the weekend. Other plants vulnerable to being closed, according to the contract, are a small-engine plant in Parma, Ohio; a metal-stamping plant in Indianapolis; and a stamping plant in Flint, Mich.

Within four of the plants that could close, some 2,500 employees are facing an uncertain future. On the other hand, 3,000 temporary employees are to be made permanent. Many of the four factories’ workers are eligible to retire with full benefits, and the contract states that GM is to offer more buyouts, which would ease the process of cutting jobs. (Here’s a list of plants facing an uncertain future pending the agreement.)

UAW rank-and-file members, however, aren’t entirely sure the tentative contract is the best possible. However, despite mixed feelings about the tentative agreement’s contents — it includes a controversial two-tier wage and benefit program and a plan to transfer the responsibility for retiree health care from GM to an independent trust — many workers and retirees said Monday they believed the membership would approve it.

UAW members began to vote on the union’s tentative contract with GM on Monday, just a week after they had walked off the job in a nationwide strike that lasted two days. More than half of the UAW’s 73,000 GM workers will need to vote in favor of the proposed deal at local union meetings, scheduled to occur by Oct. 10, to ratify the contract, reports The Detroit Free Press.

GM has been cutting costs aggressively in the face of stiff overseas competition. The automaker states that it cut $9 billion in structural costs on a running rate basis by the end of 2006 — $2 billion above the target noted last year, and $4 billion above the initial target. The company realized $6.8 billion of these savings in its 2006 financials, and plans to realize the full $9 billion in 2007.

Major actions included reducing its salaried and hourly workforce, revising U.S. salaried and hourly retiree health care benefits, restructuring its U.S. salaried employee pension plan, decreasing its executive and board of directors’ compensation, and aggressively pursuing structural-cost reductions throughout the company.

Perhaps the biggest bone of contention between the union and the automaker has been the issue of health care costs, especially for retirees. “Our retirees will be protected under this Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA),” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement.

VEBAs serve as a trust fund, or “a method to provide employees supplemental benefits; particularly post-retirement medical savings accounts,” according to VEBA.org. What remains to be seen is how much money GM puts into the UAW’s VEBA and how the union rations out the health benefits for the members.

The UAW began selling its proposed new GM contract to its members. Here are the new highlights (via The Detroit Free Press):

Plant Security: 16 of 17 UAW-GM factories secure through contract;

Retiree Health: Retiree health care unchanged under GM through 2009; with almost $30 billion available, UAW projects lifetime benefits for all;

Worker Health Benefits: Active workers keep full health benefits, in exchange for cost-of-living diversion;

New Members: GM agrees to shift 3,000 temps into permanent positions; and

Two-Tier Wages: New hires get $14 to $15 per hour.

In the meantime, since UAW workers at GM had their strike and settled, the union laborers at Ford and Chrysler are not rubber-stamping the same terms.

“Union negotiators representing workers at Chrysler have signaled reluctance to tacitly approve an agreement that mirrors the tentative deal forged with General Motors Corp. last week,” The Wall St. Journal cites people familiar with the negotiations as having said. “At the same time, management officials at Ford and Chrysler have their own issues with such an agreement, said people familiar with those talks.”

Earlier: Follow-up: No Contract, Work

Resources

UAW Contract: Nuts and Bolts
by Katie Merx
Detroit Free Press, Sept. 29, 2007

G.M. Labor Accord Calls for More Plant Closings
by Nick Bunkley
The New York Times, Oct. 2, 2007

GM-UAW Deal Leaves 15 Plants with Uncertain Future
The Associated Press, Oct. 3, 2007

UAW GM National Council Unanimously Recommends Ratification of Proposed Contract
United Auto Workers, Sept. 28, 2007

General Motors 2006 Annual Report

UAW Faces Resistance to Deals at Ford, Chrysler
by John D. Stoll and Jeffrey McCracken
The Wall St. Journal, Oct. 2, 2007