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Parma UAW Narrowly Approves GM Contract

Members of Parma Metal Center’s UAW Local 1005 are staying on the picket line until nationwide union votes are in later this week. [Afi Scruggs / ideastream]
Members of Parma Metal Center’s UAW Local 1005 on the picket line

After 38 days on the picket line, United Auto Workers at the General Motors Parma plant on Thursday narrowly approved the proposed contract.

The Parma Metal Center’s UAW Local 1005 voted 438-404 to accept the proposed agreement with GM. Strikers maintained health care, and got a pay raise — including removing the cap on profit-sharing payouts — which were major sticking points in the negotiations. 

However plants in Lordstown and Warren, Michigan, will be officially closed. The two “unallocated” factories’ fate influenced the vote, said Parma’s UAW Shop Chairman Al Tiller.

“Our brothers and sisters in Lordstown and the other plants that were closing, it was a hard thing for people to vote yes for the agreement, because it didn’t address that. So it’s mixed feelings on this agreement,” Tiller said.

Nearly 50,000 union members plan to remain on strike until the final results of votes from around the country are announced on Friday.