Detroit (USA) (AFP)

The strike at US automaker General Motors, already the longest since the 1970s, will continue for a week while the 48,000 members decide on the preliminary agreement with management.

"The GM National Council has voted to submit the text of the preliminary agreement to union members for ratification," said Brian Rothenberg, UAW's communications officer in Detroit. "The ratification must be completed by Friday, October 25" and until then the strike continues, he added.

At the end of a marathon session started at 14:00 GMT, the National Council announced its green light more than seven hours later.

The agreement is valid for 4 years.

"We are encouraging the UAW to implement the ratification process as soon as possible so that we can resume operations and return to car manufacturing for our customers," General Motors said in a statement.

"Our goal during these negotiations was to ensure that the future of General Motors is beneficial to our employees, dealers, subcontractors and the communities in which we operate," the statement said.

- Grogne -

According to a union source, the green light of the members is not acquired because more than 40% of the current employees of GM did not know the difficult moments of the group and are not willing to make big sacrifices.

If approved, the UAW will then launch negotiations with Ford and Fiat Chrysler using the GM agreement as a basis for discussions.

The text, details of which were provided Thursday by the UAW, provides for the payment of a bonus of $ 11,000 per employee at the time of ratification of the new employment contract. Temporary workers will receive $ 4,500 and will mostly be offered a path to permanent hiring, Rothenberg said.

Another victory for the automaker: it can finalize, as announced last November, the closure of three factories: in Maryland, Michigan and Ohio.

The fact that the closure of the plant in Lordstown, North Ohio, has been an act of disappointment for employees coming to Detroit for the National Council. "GM does not care about the workers," said John Debanardo, who has spent 25 years in the factory. He said he was disappointed and frustrated by the UAW's inability to save the plant.

"We had 4,500 employees at Lorsdtown, before GM started his dark cuts, first the third team, then the second and finally they closed the factory," he recalls, before launching: "GM does not want not be in the construction of cars ".

GM will be able to close a fourth site in California, but the UAW has managed to save the Detroit Hamtramck plant, which will be awarded the production of a new vehicle.

Finally, the builder will inject $ 7.7 billion into its US plants, which should create 9,000 jobs, according to a source close to management.

Nearly 50,000 unionized US GM employees have been on strike since September 16, the longest since 1970. They are calling for wage increases and improving the situation of employees hired after the bankruptcy group's historic bailout in 2009 by the Obama administration.

© 2019 AFP