General Motors has announced it will transition over 900 of its U.S. temporary workers to full-time contracts, with more part-time workers set to be hired on for full-time in the coming months.
About 930 temporary workers at 30 of GM’s 52 UAW-represented facilities in the United States were told this week that they would be hired on as full-time employees, The Detroit Free Press reports. Many of those temp workers are located at GM’s Flint Assembly plant, where 255 part-time workers will be transitioned to a permanent basis. GM also hired 103 temps at Delta Township and another 17 at Bedford Casting facility in Indiana. Complete numbers by facility are not being made public by GM, however.
The issue of temporary workers not being able to transition to full-time employees was one of the UAW’s biggest reasons for deciding to go on strike against GM last year. The union saw the path from part-time to full-time work at GM as being too long and difficult and sought to have it revised. Under the 2019 national agreement, temporary employees with at least three years of work experience at GM can convert to permanent status. The UAW still wants to see GM take on more temporary UAW employees full time, though, with UAW vice president for GM, Terry Dittes, telling the Free Press in an email that it remains “in conversations with General Motors at several locations where we believe additional members should be moved to seniority status under the agreement.”
“UAW members sacrificed during our 40-day strike to create a defined path for temporary workers to seniority members in the 2019 National Agreement,” Dittes also said.
In a statement made to the Free Press ,GM spokesman David Barnas said the temporary workers currently being moved to full-time status are “great, experienced employees.”
“Their transition to full-time regular status will help create more engaged and motivated teams in our plants, which is foundational to improving job satisfaction, health and safety, and the quality of our products for our customers,” Barnas added.
GM currently has about 4,100 temporary employees in the U.S., equivalent to roughly 10 percent of its American workforce.
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Source: The Detroit Free Press
Comment
First photo is a Navistar plant in Ohio, not a GM plant. It is a UAW represented facility, but not part of the GM-UAW agreement.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2019-Chevrolet-Silverado-Medium-Duty-production-at-Navistar%E2%80%99s-Springfield-Assembly-Plant-003-720×340.jpg