UAW-represented workers at 55 GM facilities in 10 locations on strike from 12: 01 a.m. on September 16th, costing GM nearly half a billion dollars a week. 

Union spokesman Brian Rothenberg said ratification meetings would begin on Saturday, with voting expected to be included in eight days. 

General Motors said it urged the UAW to ” move as quickly as possible through the ratification process so that we can resume operations and return to producing vehicles for our customers. Our goal during these negotiations was to ensure that the future of General Motors is one that works for our employees, dealers, suppliers and the communities where we operate. The agreement reflects our commitment to manufacturing in the U.S. by creating new jobs and increasing investment.”

GM and the UAW reached a proposed tentative agreement on a new, four-year contract Wednesday, the 31st day of a nationwide strike. It is the Union’s first strike since 2007 and the longest against GM since 1970. 

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The Union appears to have won on many of its goals, including a path to permanent employment for temporary auto workers, a faster path to top wages for workers hired after 2007. Workers will continue to pay only 3% of their health care costs, well below the national average of 28%. 

“We went on strike for a pathway for temporary workers and a fair share of profits,” Rothenberg said. “The contract gives full-time temporary workers a shortcut to permanent status.”

UAW-represented gm workers will receive a $ 11,000 bonus after the deal is ratified. Temporary workers receive $ 4,500. 

The biggest obvious loss for the Union is the continued closure of the Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio – a sore point that former Lordstown workers rallied Thursday in Detroit said would force them to vote against the deal.

The UAW on Thursday released a summary of the preliminary agreement. Highlights include:

Rothenberg told sessions to outline a tentative agreement with workers currently scheduled across the country. “Local unions have said that and the UAW will provide instructions to local unions later,” he said. 

A person familiar with the process told the Free press that the ratification vote should be completed by 16:30 on October 25.

The roots of the strike were in the recession a decade ago, when the Union made concessions that members believed they would never return and in November 2018. The UAW was outraged when GM announced plans to idle four U.S. plants, including Lordstown and Detroit-Hamtramck. Transmission plants in Warren and Baltimore were also on the list, and will remain closed.

“It is sad that with this agreement, three of these four facilities will be closed,” the Union summary of the agreement said.

“We will continue to make efforts to fight for these jobs in America,” Rothenberg said. “I think our national negotiators have done their best and we have tried to do our best for the workers of these plants by getting the aid packages that we have done. I think all our leaders understand” “

People inside the nearly six-hour National Council meeting on Thursday described it as a heavy discussion on several topics but “not heating up.”

“If you’ve ever been to a UAW meeting, everyone wanted their chance to talk,” Rothenberg said.

Workers were adamant that temporary employees should get a better deal from GM. The Union during the recession a decade ago agreed to expand hiring at GM, Ford and what was then Chrysler. Automakers argue the pace is needed to help close the gap in their all-in labor costs with foreign companies that build vehicles in the United States with non-Union labor, a difference of about $ 13 an hour.  

The final days of talks have focused on what the automaker will commit to build at U.S. plants during the four-year term of the new contract. The Union has pushed for an internal combustion engine vehicle even as GM says it is moving toward an electric future and continues to develop Mexican-made SUVs and pickup trucks for sale in the U.S. The 9,000-promise, while some are likely to be in joint ventures that pay less than direct GM employment, is a significant increase from the 5,400 jobs in GM’s Original proposal. 

Separately, about 850 janitors working at Aramark and represented by the UAW have been on strike since 12: 01am on September 15, the day before GM Union workers strike. 

The UAW reached a pre-contract with Aramark on Thursday.  Aramark operates service operations at five GM facilities: Flint Assembly, Flint Engine Operations, Flint Metal Center; Parma, Ohio Metal center; and Warren Technical center.

Estimates of the cost of the strike was different, but the Center for automotive research in Ann arbor estimated:

At least 10,000 workers for GM suppliers and the company’s plants in Mexico and Canada have also been laid off because of the strike. 

Follow Jamie L. Laro’s posts on Twitter: @jlareauan.