PARMA, Ohio — Workers at the General Motors Parma Metal Center have voted against ratifying their union's tentative contract agreement with the company.
Following informational sessions last week, employees cast their votes Tuesday, with 63% voting "no." Out of the 683 votes, 254 voted in favor compared to 429 voted against.
"They have the overriding authority, so they let their voices be heard and they voted it down," Dan Schwartz, United Auto Workers Local 1005 president, told 3News.
Parma joined at least 12 other plants around the country in voting down the UAW's agreement, including Toledo Transmission and Defiance Foundry in Northwest Ohio. However, the majority of the other GM factories — including a large one in Arlington, Texas — voted in favor of the new deal.
"The tentative agreement had a lot of great things in it, I'm not going to say it didn't," Schwartz said. "But there was just a point where I believe the legacy employees, members, kind of felt left behind where things could have been a little bit better."
Schwartz noted this shows a trend with the tentative contract catering to temporary and tiered workers, which he agrees needs to be addressed, but further asserted it lacks certain language for legacy workers who were hoping to see better retirement options.
"The pension, the $5 increase per year of service, the multiplier, that could've been a heck of a lot more," he added.
Coming off the six-week strike against the Big Three Detroit automakers, Stellantis voting continues until Tuesday and Ford goes until Saturday. Should the majority of GM employees vote against the deal, Schwartz says his workers will be ready to hit the picket line if it comes to that.
"My members have stood up and did what they had to do," Schwartz declared. "They took the layoff due to strikes at other facilities and they didn't bat an eye at it, because they knew what they were in for."
3News reached out to GM for a comment, and a spokesperson responded, "Please know we need to respectfully decline comment until the UAW has completed its ratification process."