Tag Archive for: SAP

UAW GM members,

I hope the new year finds you well. As we continue building a more militant, fighting, and transparent union, I plan to provide regular updates in 2025 on the activities of the GM Department.

Record Profit Sharing

In January, GM announced it will deliver a record profit-sharing payout of $14,500 to eligible workers on February 28, 2025. I want to congratulate the membership on this news. As always, you performed beyond all expectations. Your skillfulness made the company’s profit possible.

There have been questions regarding temporary workers’ eligibility to receive the profit-sharing payout, and I would like to clarify where things stand. Per our 2023 collective bargaining agreement, all temporary workers, both full-time and part-time, are eligible for profit-sharing. This is the first time temporary workers at the Big Three have been eligible for the profit-sharing plan since its inception. 

Raising the Standard for Our Members at GM Sanitation

Your UAW GM Department has contracts with ten sanitation companies that service our worksites, and I’m happy to share that we just locked in the final one with Hydrochem.

We’ve made great progress in winning economic justice for our members at these sanitation companies in recent years, and the agreement with Hydrochem is no different. By the end of the new contract, our wage floor across our UAW-represented sites will be raised from less than $18 an hour to more than $26 per hour. Some sanitation workers will make as much as $40-plus an hour by the end of the agreement. Thanks to our members’ solidarity and our negotiators’ resilience, we’re raising the bar for all GM sanitation workers.

Second Round of SAP Successfully Completed

In January, we successfully concluded the second round of the Special Attrition Program (SAP). Congratulations to these members on a well-earned retirement. I want to shout out our members who walked the picket lines for six weeks during our Stand Up Strike in 2023 so that we could win hard-fought gains like this improved SAP. It’s important to note that we don’t anticipate another SAP opportunity until 2026.

Job Security

Your UAW GM Department leadership understands that these are uncertain times: Federal policies are changing and tariffs may affect our industry. Under our 2023 agreement, GM agreed to build electric vehicles at several of our facilities, including Fairfax Assembly, where many UAW members are temporarily laid off while the plant retools.  Our department regularly meets with GM and is requesting information from the company about its plans at Fairfax and other potentially affected plants. We will keep your local leadership updated as more information becomes available. Enforcing our contract and protecting our jobs is my highest priority.

In solidarity,
Mike Booth
Vice President and Director

UAW General Motors Department

As you may know, our 2023 contract provides multiple opportunities for retiring pension-eligible GM workers to receive a $50,000 benefit. This benefit is called the Special Attrition Program, or SAP. We were successful in negotiating this benefit because of the solidarity of our members standing strong while we were at the bargaining table. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those retiring members who came before us.  

The second round of SAP is currently open. Everyone who is retirement eligible as of March 31, 2025 is eligible for this round of SAP. The application window opened on Thursday November 22, 2024 and closes on January 5, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. 

We continue to improve the SAP. In our first round, all 1,412 GM production workers who signed up received the benefit. However, of the 545 skilled trades workers who expressed interest in taking the SAP, only 142 were eligible in the first window. Our Skilled Trades members wanted more, and we delivered. In this round, anyone who is eligible and applies will receive the benefit, including all skilled trades and production workers. 

There is some important information that I want everyone considering the SAP to keep in mind. This is the only SAP opportunity we anticipate for 2025 and do not expect another round of SAP until 2026, at the earliest. Applications for SAP are made online through Workday. You can apply for SAP and withdraw your application multiple times during the application window. However, if you have not withdrawn your decision by January 5that 11:59pm, you will be required to retire. Once the window closes, your decision is final. If you have any questions about the SAP benefit, please direct them to your Local Union Bargaining Committee. 

I want to thank our negotiating team for their work on this round of SAP and also our membership for securing such a strong contract. Our SAP at GM is unique because it has multiple rounds, with more members becoming eligible at each round.  This means far more GM workers will be eligible to receive the $50,000 SAP. The size, scope, and timing of each phase of the SAP has to be negotiated. Our team is getting results.  

In solidarity,

UAW Vice President Mike Booth 

“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