MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (DC News Now) — A tentative settlement has been reached between the United Auto Workers and General Motors in their six-week deadlock at the bargaining table.
This comes after the union and Ford came to terms over the weekend.
The news is good for workers at the Stellantis distribution plant in Winchester, Virginia where labor and management have come to terms.
“We’ve been making sure our contractors and members get to do the electrical work in the plant,” said Dan Tedrick with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). “We want to make sure we represent and help in the fight for a living wage and good retirement and healthcare.”
Healthcare was also at the center of issues at the General Motors distribution plant in Martinsburg.
“We want a cost-of-living-allowance, our COLA and defined pensions and healthcare extended to retirees,” said Scot Henry, head of the United Auto Workers in Martinsburg.
It’s still a waiting game, however, at the Volvo-owned MACK Truck plant for a labor agreement about half an hour north in Hagerstown.
Local officials are turning out in support.
“Unions are middle class,” said Hagerstown Mayor Takesha Martinez. “And it is the middle class that goes out and buys things and shops in our city.”
Hagerstown’s legislator to the Maryland General Assembly, Brooke Grossman, has stood with the strikers.
“Now more than ever it’s so important employees have power in the workplace,” said Grossman. “We will stand with the union workers until their needs are met.”