US auto workers to vote to end strike

The United Auto Workers strike in the US will continue through at least Friday as members vote on the union’s tentative deal with General Motors, but there’s no guarantee the work stoppage will end once all the votes have been tallied, says a CNBC report. If the proposal with GM is rejected, the union’s roughly 48 000 workers would be expected to remain on picket lines, adding to the automaker’s roughly $2bn in losses over the work stoppage and increasing the financial burden on workers. ‘I don’t think the UAW leadership wants to take the vote of the UAW members for granted,’ said Art Wheaton, a labour expert at the Worker Institute at Cornell University. ‘There is a chance they could have some pushback.’ The union won several financial gains for members, including annual lump-sum bonuses or raises and $11 000 ratification bonuses, but it also agreed to not block the company’s plans to close four US facilities, including three plants and a parts distribution centre.