UAW and GM Reach Tentative Contract Deal

The United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp., the world’s largest auto maker, reached tentative agreement late Tuesday on new national contracts covering about 185,000 workers after relatively speedy and peaceful negotiations.

Terms of the contract between the UAW and GM--and a separate agreement between the union and Delphi Automotive Systems, the auto maker’s former parts division--were not immediately available. The UAW said terms would not be announced until after ratification votes by the rank and file; no date for the balloting was immediately set.

The agreements--made public in a joint statement by the UAW, GM and Delphi--follow a lucrative four-year contract the UAW negotiated with DaimlerChrysler. Tuesday’s announcement leaves Ford Motor Co., No. 2 among the three Detroit auto makers, as the last to complete negotiations with the union.

The DaimlerChrysler deal was a four-year pact with 3% raises each year, a $1,350 signing bonus and improvements in pensions. The UAW traditionally negotiates the same basic terms for all three national contracts with the Detroit companies.

GM has been working to improve relations with the UAW after last summer’s 54-day strikes at two parts factories. The work stoppages virtually shut down the auto maker’s North American production, costing GM about $2 billion in lost revenue and a chunk of market share it has yet to recover.

The strikes were largely over plant work rules and the loss of work to outside suppliers, issues certain to have been back on the table in the current talks. GM has said it needs to be more flexible and efficient to compete.

GM has also spun off the Delphi parts unit--which employs 42,000 UAW members--in an effort to create a more profitable and more competitive independent company that can seek business from other auto makers.

The UAW represents about 143,000 workers at GM, about 80,000 fewer than it did in 1990. The job losses have resulted from factory closures, the use of fewer workers on assembly lines and GM’s growing reliance on outside suppliers, among other factors.