GM offers 16% pay increase to UAW

General Motors has proposed raising hourly U.S. workers' pay by 16 per cent, including bonuses, over the next four years, the automaker said Thursday.

The company's first formal contract offer to the UAW includes a $5,500 (all figures in USD) ratification bonus, $5,000 in inflation-protection bonuses and the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday. GM also said it would shorten the length of time for new hires to reach top wages to six years, from eight years today.

"Our offer includes well-deserved wage improvements that far exceed the 2019 agreement and reward you for your hard work," GM said in a letter to workers. "We still have work to do, but we wanted to make this offer to show our good faith efforts to keep the process moving."

UAW President Shawn Fain quickly criticized the offer as inadequate.

“After refusing to bargain in good faith for the past six weeks, only after having federal labour board charges filed against them, GM has come to the table with an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers," Fain said in a statement.

The UAW has threatened to strike if it doesn’t have acceptable new deals when the current contracts expire Sept. 14.

The union has demanded its members get 46-per-cent pay increases over four years. GM said the raises it's offering would be the largest given to its UAW members since the contract signed in 1999.

The offer comes a week after the union filed unfair labor practice charges against GM and Stellantis, arguing the two companies were moving too slowly and thus bargaining in bad faith. The Detroit office of the National Labor Relations Board plans to investigate the charges. Stellantis is expected to submit an offer to the union by the end of the week.

GM's proposal appears more generous than the deal Ford Motor Co. made to the UAW last week, though both proposals include identical ratification bonuses and 20-per-cent raises for temporary workers. Ford said it would give workers 15 per cent more pay, including bonuses, as well as cut the grow-in period to six years. The union said Ford's offer would not recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.