GM will promote more than 1,350 temp workers to full-time jobs as part of agreement that ended 40-day strike

• General Motors said on Wednesday that it will transition more than 1,350 temporary workers to full-time employment with the automaker.
• The move is part of an agreement GM reached with the United Auto Workers union following a 40-day strike. UAW had been pushing for promotions for temporary workers.
• Employees from Michigan to New York to Texas are included in the promotions, and those who have worked with GM for three years or more will be the first priority.
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General Motors said on Wednesday it will promote 1,350 temporary employees to regular full-time employees this quarter.

The move is part of an agreement GM reached with the United Auto Workers union following a 40-day strike. Temporary employees were a focal point of UAW's labor stoppage late last year.

The promoted employees work in 14 plants across eight states, including Michigan, New York, and Texas, GM said in a statement.

UAW and GM said in October they had come to a tentative agreement with improvements for workers' job security, health benefits, and a path for temporary workers to transition to full-time status.

"Converting temporary employees to permanent status was a top priority for your national negotiators," the UAW wrote in a summary of its contract with GM.

That path to permanent employment, along with "the good wages and benefits that brings" is "significant progress for our temporary brothers and sisters," the UAW said.

The agreement with GM in October followed a nearly five-week long strike by almost 50,000 GM employees.

Not all temporary employees will be converted, though. The promotions prioritize employees with three or more years of continuous work at GM and will move toward transitioning less senior employees next year, according to the summary of the contract.

In turn for the promotions, the UAW agreed to GM's plans to close a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, as well as two smaller plants in Maryland and Michigan, Bloomberg reported.