UAW

General Motors and the United Auto Workers union reach a tentative contract agreement, according to an AP source.

The United Auto Workers union is ending its 44-day strike at Chrysler-parent Stellantis after reaching a tentative agreement that union leaders say “got every penny possible out of this company.”

The United Auto Workers union again escalated its strikes against Detroit Three automakers, this time adding a factory that makes Ram pickup trucks for Stellantis.

Unifor said in a statement Sunday that the vote was 80.5% in favor of the deal. The vote followed the pattern of an agreement reached earlier with Ford.

The United Auto Workers strike strategy has been mostly predictable over the last four weeks. On Fridays, the union would announce which plants would go on strike based on how well the week's negotiations went. National union leadership announced Friday that pattern is ending — and local UAW officials say they'll have to calm member's nerves about it.

Stellantis, parent company of Jeep and Chrysler, announced Wednesday it plans to build a second EV battery plant in Kokomo.This comes as the United Auto Workers presses the company to protect union jobs in the shift to EVs.

General Motors long argued its battery plants have no “legal or practical path” to be made part of the same United Auto Workers union contract as the rest of its manufacturing workers. On Friday, the UAW announced the company has now agreed to do just that in a last-ditch effort to avoid a potentially devastating strike.

Mack President Stephen Roy says the deal delivers significantly higher wages and will allow the company to compete. The agreement covers about 4,000 workers in three states.

Indiana's Ford, General Motors and Stellantis employees still have not been called to join the United Auto Workers strikes yet. But the state's workers are still being impacted as UAW strikes at facilities in other states lead to reduced production and temporary layoffs across the auto supply chain. Workers at an axle supplier in Fort Wayne are among the latest to feel those effects.

Stellantis is set to temporarily lay off about 300 workers at two parts manufacturing plants in Kokomo. In the face of that, a large group of United Auto Workers members and supporters gathered Sunday to practice picketing in front of one of Stellantis’ plants.