UAW says GM deal will keep jobs in US

Most workers will not get annual pay raises but will get at least $12,500 in bonuses, profit-sharing, and other payments over the life of the contract. GM is offering some older workers up to $65,000 if they retire early.

Union leaders from around the country were briefed on the deal in Detroit in a morning meeting, and they voted to recommend that GM’s 48,500 factory workers ratify it. Workers are expected to finish voting on the deal by Sept. 29.

The union will now use the GM contract as a template as it negotiates with Chrysler Group and Ford Motor Co.

The deal creates more than 5,100 new assembly-line jobs and opens up 1,300 jobs for skilled workers like electricians and welders. The skilled work is now done by outside contractors, but UAW workers will be able to bid on it. The union said much of the work is being brought back from Mexico.

“The auto industry is back,’’ UAW President Bob King said at a meeting of local union leaders in Detroit. “General Motors and the UAW are working together to create jobs in America.’’

GM has agreed to invest $2.5 billion in its factories, including the reopening of an assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn. Union-company teams also are identifying 760 more potential jobs and 1,400 more jobs for UAW-represented GM suppliers.

The agreement reached Friday includes a $5,000 signing bonus. Workers will get a minimum of $3,500 in profit-sharing next year and $250 per year for meeting quality targets. They will also get three $1,000 bonuses.

The contract includes a new profit-sharing formula that is based on the company’s North American profits. If GM earns less than $1.25 billion, workers will not get any payment. In 2010, GM earned just under $5.7 billion in North America, which would mean a $5,500 profit-sharing check under the new formula. Under the old formula, workers got $4,300.

Wages for GM’s 1,940 entry-level workers, who now make about half the pay of longtime UAW workers, will go up 24 percent during the contract. Workers who now make $14.78 per hour will see their pay rise to $18.28. The company also has around 500 temporary workers who will get smaller wage increases.

The union also said GM is offering payments for workers to retire early or leave the company. Eligible workers can get up to $10,000 if they retire within the next two years. There is also a $65,000 bonus for skilled-trades workers if they retire or leave the company between Nov. 1 and March 31. GM is trying to clear out older workers so it can hire new workers at the entry-level wage.

Dave Green, president of a UAW local at GM’s factory complex in Lordstown, Ohio, east of Cleveland, predicted after the briefing that workers will approve the contract.

Even though it has no pay raises for longtime workers, Green said it has signing bonuses, inflation protection, and profit-sharing that workers should like.

“I think that it’s pretty fair and gives our members incentives to make sure we continue to build a quality product,’’ he said.

He also said the raises for entry-level workers put their pay above what some foreign automakers pay at US factories. That should help the UAW with efforts to organize those plants, he said. Organizing workers at foreign-owned plants is one of King’s priorities.

King said he has not decided if the union will start talks with Chrysler and Ford next. He would not discuss an angry letter sent last week by Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne accusing King of missing a meeting to sign a new deal.