United Auto Workers (UAW) union members at General Motors’ GM-N Flint assembly plant in Michigan have narrowly voted against a proposed contract with the U.S. automaker, the local chapter said.
The vote signals that approval of the deal, which is set to raise costs significantly for GM, is not guaranteed.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, the UAW Local 598 said 51.8 per cent of votes cast were against the proposed deal.
GM said it would not comment during the ratification process.
Shares of the company, which has 4,746 workers at the Flint plant, fell about 1.2 per cent in morning trade to hit a more than three-year low of $26.30.
Workers at the company’s other plants are expected to vote on the agreement in the coming weeks.
Of the total votes cast at the company’s various facilities so far, about 58 per cent of workers voted in favour of the deal, according to a UAW vote tracker.
Workers are yet to vote at some of GM’s major plants including the Arlington assembly plant in Texas and Fort Wayne truck plant in Indiana, which produce some of the company’s most profitable vehicles.
Union workers are voting on contracts from each of Chrysler-owner Stellantis STLA-N, General Motors and Ford Motor F-N, after the first co-ordinated strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers.
The vote at the Flint assembly plant, which manufactures the Silverado heavy duty pickup truck, comes after the Detroit Three automakers and the UAW reached tentative deals over the last few weeks to end a costly strike following marathon negotiations.
The UAW’s new agreement, which covers 46,000 workers overall at GM, grants a 25 per cent increase in base wage through April 2028 and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33 per cent compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour.
“The chances of GM putting more than another 15 cents on the table are low,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor.
The historic deal with the Detroit Three has prompted rival automakers with a non-unionized work force to offer hikes.
Japan’s Honda Motor said on Friday it was implementing an 11 per cent pay increase for production workers at its U.S. facilities from January.
Separately, the UAW said Volvo Group-owned Mack Trucks has informed the union that the Oct. 1 offer to striking workers was its “last, best and final.”
Voting on the offer has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, the union said.