LORDSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — United Auto Workers union members with four locals across Ohio voted by wide margins to approve a tentative contract agreement with General Motors Corp., the union announced Tuesday. A small local near Columbus rejected the agreement.
UAW locals representing workers at the Lordstown assembly and fabrication plants, the Toledo Transmission plant and the Parma Metal Center near Cleveland approved the contract. Approval margins ranged from 54 percent to 68 percent.
Local 969, with 90 members at the ACDelco operation in Groveport near Columbus, rejected the contract by a 56 percent margin.
Vote results were pending at GM plants in Mansfield and Defiance and a smaller operation in West Chester near Cincinnati.
The UAW struck GM for nearly two days last month before coming to a tentative agreement Sept. 26. Workers with the nation's largest automaker are expected to wrap up voting on the agreement by Wednesday.
The tentative agreement requires GM to pay out at least $35 billion for retiree health care, establishes lower wages for thousands of new employees and offers an unprecedented number of promises for future work at U.S. plants.
GM's biggest Ohio employee base is Lordstown, which has 2,400 assembly plant and 1,200 fabrication plant workers in a sprawling complex located along the Ohio Turnpike about 40 miles southeast of Cleveland. The plant makes the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5.
The proposed contract promises new products for 16 U.S. plants, including Lordstown. Production of Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars ends in Lordstown after the 2009 model year.
