Momentum builds toward ratification of GM contract

By Jui Chakravorty and David Bailey

DETROIT (Reuters) - Momentum has been building toward the United Auto Workers accepting a tentative contract with General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), though members at key locals backed it by narrow margins in results released on Thursday.

The UAW's more than 73,000 active members at GM are aligned in dozens of locals across the United States that must vote on the contract settlement reached last week that ended a two-day national strike against the largest U.S. automaker.

A majority of workers casting ballots must approve for the contract to be ratified and the UAW has aimed to complete the vote by October 10. The UAW has yet to complete contract talks with Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)> and privately held Chrysler LLC.

At least seven UAW locals representing more than 10,000 of the active members had completed voting this week and approved of the contract. Exact figures were unavailable.

The contract with GM would set a second-tier lower wage for workers not involved in direct production and a trust for retiree health-care aligned with the union. It also would make 3,000 temporary workers permanent and permit buyouts.

A quarter of the factory workers could be replaced with lower cost hires eventually under the contract.

Workers at UAW Local 31 for a GM assembly plant near Kansas City, Kansas, and at UAW Local 594 in Pontiac, Michigan, voted to accept the contract with 56 percent and 58 percent respectively, a lower support than at other locals.

"It will be a good agreement," UAW Local 31 President Jeff Manning said in a telephone interview, adding that the members were most concerned about the core and non-core jobs classifications that have yet to be fully worked out.