UAW's Shawn Fain touts 'record' contracts amid ratification votes

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain overviewed highlights of the "record" contracts 146,000 Detroit Three autoworkers currently are voting on, with initial results being tallied.

Fain touted the agreements during a Facebook Live event Wednesday afternoon. Although a majority of members at Ford Motor Co. so far have approved their tentative contract that promises wage hikes, increased retirement benefits and product allocation, initial results from General Motors Co. locals have been less positive.

"As you all know by now I'm not afraid to trash a contract ... But I truly believe these are record contracts and are a major victory for our movement," Fain said during the Facebook Live event. "There were many in the media and in the corporate class who were saying we didn't know what we were doing. And they thought we'd never get a deal. But then we got all three."

Two GM locals so far have voted down the UAW's agreement with the Detroit automaker. Results from Local 163 that represents workers at Romulus Propulsion Systems showed that 51% of members on Tuesday voted down the deal.

Meanwhile, 52% production workers at Flint Engine voted against the agreement. Skilled trades workers supported the deal with 69% voting yes. Local 659 represents the workers there alongside employees at a parts distribution center, metal fabrication facility and the North American Engineering Tooling Center. Overall at the local, production workers voted yes by 63%, and 70% for skilled trades.

At least one larger local had supported the deal. Workers at Local 22 that represents the Factory Zero Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center supported the agreement with 67% of skilled trades workers, 54% production and 100% salaried nurses voting yes.

Spokespeople for GM and the UAW declined to comment.

In results so far, Ford members mostly have approved of the contract with big plants like Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne approving with 80.5% voting yes, Kansas City Assembly Plant with 55.8% and Chicago Assembly Plant with 56.7%.

One Ford local has voted down the agreement, according to the union's online tracker. Local 788 representing production employees at a parts distribution center in Lakeland, Florida, voted down the agreement by 69%, though it got full support from a single skilled trades employee.

"This was an effort to gin up support among the rank-and-file for the contract, highlighting some of the record-breaking aspects of the contract from his perspective, and the fact that they really pushed the companies as hard as they possibly could," said Marick Masters, a management professor at Wayne State University. "Leaving the clear impression that if they were to have to go back to the table they would be unable to bleed them any drier and this is probably the best that they expect to get, with only marginal improvements if they reject the contract and are forced back."

The UAW's deals with GM, Ford and Stellantis include: 27% in compounded base wage increases for hourly employees, a revival of cost-of-living adjustments, a shorter timeline to the top wage, rollover commitments for temporary/supplemental workers and a pathway for employees at future battery plants to become organized under the union's master agreement with the companies. The deals would end in April 2028.

Fain, on the Wednesday Facebook Live, noted that the union came up short on getting better retirement benefits. The union wanted to see pensions for all workers and retirement healthcare coverage.

The UAW agreements with the Detroit Three include $500 annual payments for current retirees and surviving spouses. For current traditional members, they include a $5 increase to the basic benefit.

"We didn't win on this issue," Fain said. "The fact is, both of these issues are extremely difficult and expensive to fix. Primarily because the Big Three, being so driven by Wall Street, refused to have the liability on their books."

The UAW is already looking at how to resolve the retirement issues in 2028, when these contracts will expire.

"We're building our strike muscle to go even further in 2028," he said. "When we win full retirement security, it will be because we organized the non-union automakers, we got our own house in order and went to war for economic justice."

Masters said the remarks were consistent with Fain's approach to communications so far as president, where he has spoken directly to rank-and-file members and shared his unvarnished views while making clear that it's ultimately up to them to decide what's best: "It's something that I think departs from what you've seen in the recent past from the leadership that has been more stonewalled about their approach, in terms of handling these tentative agreements."

It's not unexpected, though, that union leadership would make its case to the rank-and-file about why they believe the deals are the best they could get.

Masters noted, too, that Fain acknowledged the challenges the union faced and that it wasn't able to get everything members wanted. It's important, he said, that leaders "not take a victory lap" while ratification votes still are ongoing and that they keep their focus on the fights that lie ahead, such as organizing workers at foreign transplants.

"Even if they're able to win ratification," he said, "I think that it's important that they move on to their next steps and next challenges and realize that this the first phase in an effort to secure a better future for these workers."

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