Striking GM Workers Vote to Return to Work in Lansing
Unionized auto workers on Tuesday approved a settlement with General Motors Corp., ending the second strike this month against the car giant.
Members of United Auto Workers Local 602 voted 60% to 40% to return to work today at GM’s car body plant in Lansing. The plant had been idled since last Friday by a walkout.
The No. 1 auto maker tentatively settled the 4-day-old strike on Monday. But under the agreement, UAW members at the plant will vote Dec. 1 on a key issue in the dispute--whether to take breaks all at once, as GM proposes.
“We don’t consider that GM’s going to win on this,” said Jim Sickles, a UAW International representative. Sickles said 2,383 workers voted on Monday.
The agreement allows about 7,200 workers to return to their jobs. That includes about 4,200 striking body plant workers and 3,000 others at a Lansing chassis plant that completes assembly of the Pontiac Grand Am.
The auto giant, paralyzed by an earlier strike against its Lordstown, Ohio, plant, remains dogged by labor troubles in Indiana. Another potentially disruptive strike is brewing at a factory in Anderson, Ind.
