Right in time for the winter holidays, the UAW has ratified the labor agreements with the Detroit big three after member voting, which means that the work stoppage is officially over (workers returned to plants upon the tentative agreement). Now it’s all about getting production numbers back up. The announcement came through on Monday, November 20, 2023. And while the vote to ratify was not unanimous, it did represent a clear majority in each case(70.0% at Stellantis, 69.3% at Ford and just 54.7% of workers approving the contract at GM).
“The members have spoken. After years of cutbacks, months of our Stand Up campaign, and weeks on the picket line, we have turned the tide for the American autoworker,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “The Stand Up Strike was just the beginning. The UAW is back to setting the standard. Now, we take our strike muscle and our fighting spirit to the rest of the industries we represent, and to millions of non-union workers ready to Stand Up and fight for a better way of life.”
Ford put out its own response to the official ratification.
“We are pleased the agreement has been ratified and we are very happy for our more than 57,000 UAW-represented employees and their families. Ford believes in rewarding all of our people and growing the middle class in America – and we have shown that with our actions over many years.
Now, we are getting back to work as one Ford team. Thankfully, we are on track to reach full production schedules in the coming days at our assembly plants in Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois that were affected during the strike. I’m excited to personally get out to as many of our plants and operations as possible in the coming weeks and months to spend time with our teams who build our vehicles,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley.
For all three OEMs, the strike resulted in wage increases, faster ascension to top pay, more secure retirement options, the reopening of the Stellantis Bellvidere plant, and a clear path to EV transition with more benefit in that path to workers.
The individual gains per company can be seen here:
For union members, the strike also represented a hardline, digital savvy approach in leader Shawn Fain who not only called out corporate greed amongst the Big Three CEOs and execs, but took aim at President Biden and corruption in the union leadership that lead to many of the concessions during the recession that have lead to the economic situation today for auto workers. To say Fain is a polarizing figure is putting it lightly.
But for now, the Big Three are back in business.
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