Auto workers and General Motors reach tentative contract agreement (GM to add thousands of jobs)

[WI_DEM]

The UAW and General Motors have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. Details of the deal will be released Tuesday morning, but:

According to people familiar with the deal, it offers a $5,000 signing bonus, a modest pay increase—$3 an hour over four years—for lower-wage workers hired after September 2007 and a change in profit-sharing, based on North American results, not just those for the U.S. GM also is said to have agreed to add thousands of jobs and reopen the Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tenn.
"I'm willing to take a chance on profit-sharing, because it's better than nothing," said Andy Bohner, who works at GM's Flint truck assembly plant. "But," he noted, "I'd rather see a straight performance bonus," which represented a certain percentage of annual wages in years past.

Workers will vote to accept or reject the contract in the next 10 days. Due to a no-strike agreement made as part of the government helping the auto companies avert bankruptcy in 2009, if there is no agreement on a contract, it will go to binding arbitration.

www.dailykos.com