GM, Auto Workers in Tentative Agreement

The United Auto Workers early today announced a tentative agreement with General Motors Corp. on a new contract covering 300,000 U.S. workers. A strike deadline had passed on Friday.

“I am pleased to announce to our members and to you that we have reached a tentative contract agreement here at General Motors,” UAW President Owen Bieber said after a marathon bargaining session with the nation’s No. 1 auto maker.

Bargaining had continued Sunday night, extending a session that started Saturday at 9 a.m. as the two sides haggled over ways to protect the jobs of the GM workers.

The union leadership is scheduled to meet today with about 30 local union leaders, some of whom had been calling for a walkout.

The UAW’s settlement contrasts with its 12,800 Canadian counterparts whose separate auto workers union struck Ford of Canada after failing to reach a new agreement Friday night.

The decision by UAW leaders to ignore the midnight Friday strike deadline in any case had little meaning until today, when the workweek begins.