DETROIT – All workers will receive a $5,000 signing bonus, entry-level workers will receive a wage increase of about $3 per hour over four years and profit sharing will be sweetened under the new deal that the United Auto Workers and General Motors reached late Friday, according to people familiar with the plan.

The deal will also add new jobs, including about 400 in Warren, Mich., and an untold number at other facilities, including Romulus, Mich., Wentzville, Mo., and Spring Hill, Tenn., which will reopen, two of the people said.

There will also be no cuts in retiree benefits, although the contract has no real gains for retirees, either.

Late Friday night, the UAW and General Motors announced they had reached a deal on a tentative labor agreement covering 49,000 U.S. workers.

If the terms of the deal are viewed as reasonable, it will likely be heralded by the backers of GM’s 2009 government-backed bankruptcy as proof the rescue was a success.

Many details of the deal were not immediately divulged, but a statement released by UAW President Bob King just after 11 p.m. Friday shared some of the highlights, including “significant investments and products for our plants” and “improved profit-sharing with far greater transparency.” The union also said it prevented cuts to pensions and secured improvements, not cuts, to health care benefits.

Profit sharing will now be based on income from all GM’s North American operations, not just U.S. plants, a person familiar with the deal said.

Now the UAW must sell the deal to its GM members. Local union leaders will be briefed Tuesday. A vote is expected to take place in the next week to 10 days.

 

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