UAW secures nearly $8M in back pay

Money is for workers at closed GM plants, including Lordstown

LORDSTOWN -- Approximately 800 United Auto Workers members at General Motors will share nearly $8 million in back pay following an arbitrator's ruling that determined the automaker violated its contract with the union by closing three plants in 2019.

The factories were the small-car assembly plant in Lordstown, which employed more than 1,000 workers making the Chevrolet Cruze when it closed in March 2019, the Baltimore Operations transmission plant in White Marsh, Maryland, and the Warren Transmission Plant in Warren, Michigan.

The award includes payments for lost overtime, 401(k) and pension contributions, performance bonuses and nearly $800,000 in interest, according to a Dec. 5 letter on UAW's website.

"The arbitrator awarded nearly everything the UAW sought as a remedy for GM's breach," the letter states.

"The union is pushing the company to implement the award as soon as possible," the letter states. "The arbitrator has retained jurisdiction to resolve any questions of interpretation, application, or implementation of the award."

According to a July 2022 letter, also on the UAW's website, the union was informed that month an arbitrator determined GM violated its national agreement with the union when it closed the plants; the decision, the letter states, was an "important victory."

It states as a result of GM's breach, the arbitrator found that certain members who kept working with the company at other locations, but experienced some period of layoff were entitled to be made whole.

The award does not resolve an issue over mutually satisfied retirement for members the arbitrator previously found was not subject to arbitration, but the Dec. 5 letter states "we continue to fight for MSR's for all eligible members."

GM announced in November 2018 it was placing five plants, including Lordstown, on "unallocated status." Two factories, however, ultimately remained open -- Detroit Hamtramck is now GM's Factory Zero to produce electric vehicles, as did a factory in Oshawa, Ontario, near Toronto, where a version of the popular Chevrolet Silverado is now produced.

The Lordstown facility was the first to idle, followed by Baltimore Operations in May 2019 and Warren, Michigan, in August 2019.

The UAW ended up suing GM in federal court to try to keep the plants open, arguing the automaker side-stepped a plant-closing moratorium agreement from October 2015 that states GM committed not to close or idle the plants during the term of the 2015 GM / UAW national agreement.

The arbitration was the result of an October 2019 settlement of the case.

GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said: "GM is pleased with the arbitrator's decision related to the mutually satisfactory retirement benefits. We plan no further legal action regarding the arbitrator's ruling on Doc. 13."

Document 13 is the part of the contract GM violated when it closed the three plants.

The latest national agreement between the UAW and GM includes language that allows former Lordstown plant employees working at the plant on Nov. 26, 2018, to apply to work at Ultium Cells in Lordstown, an electric-vehicle battery-cell factory operating in a joint venture between GM and South Korea's LG Energy Solution.

Employees who transfer would keep their current wages, benefits and seniority.