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Contract voting at Ultium continues today

LORDSTOWN — Members of United Auto Workers at Ultium Cells will continue voting today on a tentative master agreement between the union and General Motors.

There will be two rounds of voting, from 5 to 8 a.m. and 5 to 8 p.m., the same periods available to vote Monday.

Results will be announced later this evening, according to a union official.

Should UAW members at GM plants approve the agreement, production workers at the factory in Lordstown would receive an immediate pay increase of $6 to $8 per hour. The wage would be $26.91 per hour and go to $30.88 per hour over the course of the 4 1/2-year deal, according to the UAW.

In addition, they would receive a $5,000 ratification bonus.

Ultium Cells is a joint venture between GM and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution to mass produce battery cells for electric vehicles. Its more than $2.3 billion plant in Lordstown — the first to launch production toward the end of 2022 — employs about 1,400 people.

The employees overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW in December. In August, workers, again by an overwhelming margin, ratified an agreement that increased the average salary by 25%.

The master agreement also would allow former Lordstown assembly plant workers the opportunity to come home and work at Ultium Cells.

If UAW members ratify the deal, there would be a six-month window for the former small-car assembly plant employees working at the plant on Nov. 26, 2018, to apply to return and work at Ultium Cells, according to the union. Those former Lordstown workers would keep their current wages, benefits and seniority.

The Ultium Cells factory is on state Route 45 immediately east of GM’s former assembly plant that the automaker shut down in March 2019, ending more than 50 years of automaking prowess at the facility. About 1,500 people were working at the plant when it closed; some chose to transfer to other GM facilities, others decided to retire and still others decided to cut ties with GM and find work elsewhere.

GM announced in November 2018 the decision to idle the plant. The last vehicle made there was the Chevrolet Cruze.

Folding battery plant workers into the national contracts between the UAW and Detroit automakers — GM, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis — was among the key victories by the union.

GM was the first to concede unionizing EV battery plants.

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