GM workers to get $5,000 signing bonus in deal

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Updated: November 10, 2011 12:24PM

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses and the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

The deal reached late Friday also includes a $2 to $3 an hour pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and guarantees more union jobs, the people said.

Both people asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract hadn’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.

The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts to be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also sets the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.

The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009. GM earned $4.7 billion last year.

Workers have to approve the deal before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days.

In addition to the bonuses, workers could get profit-sharing checks that exceed the $4,000 checks that workers earned last year.

The deal also will include creative ways to cut GM’s hourly labor costs. GM pays about $56 an hour including wages and benefits. That’s less than Ford pays but far higher than other companies such as Chrysler and Hyundai Motor Co.

A former Saturn assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., will be reopened under the deal, the sources said, and new products have been promised to plants in Romulus, Mich.; Warren, Mich., and Wentzville, Mo.

GM has about 2,400 entry-level workers who make $14 to $16 per hour, about half the pay of a longtime UAW worker. The union agreed to the lower wage as automakers ran into financial troubles in 2007. AP