UAW Battery Workers at Ultium in Lordstown Win Breakthrough Agreement on Wage Increase

LORDSTOWN, Oh. – The UAW announced today that union workers at Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, have won a breakthrough agreement to immediately raise wages by $3 to $4 an hour, as well as thousands of dollars of back pay for hundreds of workers. Ultium workers will vote on whether to ratify the interim deal in the coming days. The interim deal follows months of negotiations and a public UAW campaign to win justice for electric vehicle workers at Ultium and across the country.

“After months of public pressure and worker organizing, Ultium was forced to take a first step towards economic justice for the workers who are powering GM’s electric vehicle future,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. “When we fight hard, we can win big, and we aren’t done fighting for standard-setting wages and benefits at Ultium and beyond.”

“This interim wage increase is a victory for the workers in Lordstown who have been organizing relentlessly to combat dangerous working conditions and appallingly low pay,” said UAW Vice President Mike Booth. “But it is still far short of what these workers deserve for the level of skill their labor requires, the working conditions they must endure, and the incredible value they produce for this heavily taxpayer-subsidized employer. We have been clear with Ultium: this wage increase is just the start.”

Ultium workers deserve this immediate relief from the poverty wages they have been earning. We will continue to have our members backs as we move forward in fighting for the wages and benefits that autoworkers have won over generations,” said UAW Region 2B Director David Green. “The race to the bottom is over!”

Ultium Cells produces battery cells for GM’s growing battery fleet and is expected to qualify for more than $1 billion a year in federal tax credits when it is running at full capacity. Workers at Ultium Cells won their union in a landslide vote of 710 to 16 in December 2022 — becoming the first in the nation to successfully unionize at a large battery cell production plant. Workers organized in response to serious health and safety concerns and poverty wages.

Both the dangerous conditions and poverty wages were extensively documented in a case study recently published by the UAW, entitled “High Risk & Low Pay: Hazardous Conditions and Low Wages Show Standards Must be Raised at Battery Cells Plants Getting Billions in Taxpayer Dollars.”

The UAW will continue to bargain over further wage increases until it has reached a complete first agreement with Ultium Cells.

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