UAW president calls GM offer with 10% pay increases ‘insulting’ ahead of strike deadline

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General Motors
on Thursday offered its largest four-year wage increase in decades as part of a new contract proposal to the United Auto Workers, as the automaker attempts to avoid another costly strike by its unionized workforce.

The UAW’s president, however, called the offer “insulting.”

The wage increase for most of GM’s roughly 46,000 UAW-represented workers would be 10%, while newer, or in-progression, employees would be eligible for up to a 56% increase in wages over the four years of the deal, the company announced Thursday after meeting with union leaders and negotiators. Temporary workers, who supplement full-time employees, would also receive 20% wage increases to roughly $20 an hour.

Under the current pay structure, UAW members start at about $18 an hour and have a “grow-in” period of four years to reach a top wage of more than $32 an hour.

GM’s proposed contract also includes two additional 3% lump sum payments resulting in a total wage increase of 16%; $5,500 ratification bonus; $6,000 one-time inflation-recognition payment; and $5,000 in inflation-protection bonuses over the life of the agreement, which in-progression employees are eligible.

Despite the proposed wage increase being the largest under a UAW contract since 1999, it still falls far short of the union’s demands of 40% hourly pay increase, a reduced 32-hour work week, a shift back to traditional pensions, elimination of compensation tiers, and restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, among other items on the table.

UAW President Shawn Fain was not impressed by GM’s proposal, calling it “an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers.”

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