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UAW Local 1112 to vote to ratify new GM/UAW pact Thursday

By Jess Hardin
From left to right: 10-year GM Lordstown worker Paul Megown and 7-year workers Barb Smith and Jesse Silva warm themselves on a blustery and gray Thursday, while working the United Auto Workers Local 1112 picket line outside the shuttered plant. Photo by Justin Dennis
From left to right: 10-year GM Lordstown worker Paul Megown and 7-year workers Barb Smith and Jesse Silva warm themselves on a blustery and gray Thursday, while working the United Auto Workers Local 1112 picket line outside the shuttered plant. Photo by Justin Dennis

LORDSTOWN — United Auto Workers Local 1112, which represents Lordstown workers, will vote Thursday on whether to ratify the tentative agreement with General Motors.

Despite some media accounts, union officials said the vote was not postponed from today due to a threat made to international union headquarters.

"I can say that the meeting date was actually changed due to scheduling conflicts for the GM Department presenters as we have a shortened ratification period and they are traveling to all the different [sites] for informational meetings," UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said in an email.

"There was no specific threat made to 1112," Local 1112 president Tim O'Hara told Mahoning Matters.

"While there are a lot of emotions locally associated with the proposed tentative agreement I don't expect any issues at our meeting on Thursday to put anyone in danger," O'Hara said.

The UAW National General Motors Council approved a tentative agreement with General Motors Oct. 17 in Detroit. The contract would end the longest GM strike in nearly 50 years but also shutter three of its plants, including the 53-year-old Lordstown facility.

The deadline for a UAW vote on the contract is Friday.

This story was originally published October 23, 2019 at 9:04 AM with the headline "UAW Local 1112 to vote to ratify new GM/UAW pact Thursday."