Tag Archive for: General Motors

“In our 2023 contract negotiations, we won an additional $50,000 for eligible GM workers who were ready to retire, as an additional boost in retirement security for our members who have given decades of their working lives to this company. It’s called the Special Attrition Program, or SAP. We wanted to make sure workers who are ready to retire get an additional bonus as recognition for their service to GM, and the many sacrifices made along the way. 

One difference between what we won at GM and what we won at Ford and Stellantis is that every GM worker who’s eligible to retire during the life of the agreement will have the opportunity to receive the $50,000 SAP, if they choose to do so; not just those members who were eligible upon ratification. But the size, scope, and timing of each phase of the SAP was to be negotiated.  

As you know, we negotiated our first phase earlier this year, and won SAP eligibility for around 748 members. Once we announced this first phase, many members spoke up and said that we needed to expand the eligibility in this first phase. 

We heard you. So we took it back to the company and said it wasn’t good enough. 

Today I am excited to announce that we have won SAPs for ALL 1,412 GM production workers who signed up for the SAP. Those workers will immediately be eligible to receive the $50,000 retirement bonus, with retirement dates effective June 1st, July 1st or August 1st. That’s a big win, and a big expansion from what GM was first willing to offer. 

But we still have work to do. We have not yet won immediate eligibility of all of the 545 skilled trades workers who have expressed interest in taking the SAP; only about 142 are immediately eligible in this first window. We’re still fighting to win an expansion on that number. At GM, we have a shortage of skilled trades workers, a problem which will require creative solutions on the company’s part, and an expansion of their apprenticeship programs. We’re going to continue to fight for our skilled trades members who want to retire. And to be clear, every single member who is eligible to retire will have the opportunity to receive the $50,000 SAP during the life of this contract, skilled trades and production.  

The other good news is that the next window is coming soon. The company has agreed to open the next SAP window in the 4th quarter of 2024. 

We are hard at work on building on our contract victories, and intend to keep delivering for all UAW members at GM. 

In solidarity,

UAW Vice President Mike Booth 

General Motors Aramark workers have won a historic tentative agreement that will set the pattern and raise the standard for all UAW GM members in sanitation. 

In a new video, Mike Booth, UAW Vice President and Director of the GM Department, shares some of the record gains contained in the deal and the strategy behind winning the agreement.  

Under the tentative agreement, Aramark workers will receive raises of up to 43% over the life of the proposed three-year deal. The UAW was also able to reduce the time it takes a worker to reach the top wage rate. Previously, it could take years for a worker to reach that mark. Under the proposed agreement, it would take a worker just ninety days.  

UAW Aramark workers will also receive retroactive back pay from March 15, the day the previous contract expired. 

“If ratified, this deal will be a major victory for our UAW members in sanitation, not just at Aramark,” Booth says in the video to Aramark workers. “Of the ten sanitation companies the UAW bargains with, Aramark is the largest. We took the fight to Aramark head-on to win a contract that recognizes your hard work and dedication.” 

Winning a record agreement at Aramark is part of the UAW’s strategy to put pressure on the other nine sanitation companies to negotiate similar contracts, improving conditions for all UAW sanitation workers.  

“Our strategy was to win big at Aramark so we can win big everywhere else for our GM sanitation members,” Booth says. “We’re showing these companies that the days of our members in sanitation getting left behind are over.”

Aramark workers will now vote on whether to approve the tentative agreement.  

The record deal at Aramark comes on the heels of a number of major victories for the UAW in recent months. Last fall, UAW members won record contracts at the Big Three automakers after their 44-day Stand-Up Strike. Last week, autoworkers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN, made history by overwhelmingly voting to join the UAW, the first auto plant in the South to unionize in decades.