TOLEDO, Ohio — It's too close to call Wednesday night on whether United Auto Workers nationwide favor the tentative contract agreement with General Motors.
Workers at the automaker's largest plants in Michigan, Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana have voted no. GM's Toledo Propulsions System plant agreed, with Local 14 membership voting 56-44% to reject the deal.
WTOL 11 caught up with some Toledo Propulsion System workers to see the reasoning behind their votes. On Wednesday, Local 14 has a bowling league at Jugs Bowling Center in West Toledo.
While many of the bowlers are retired from the plant, some, like Jason Harris, are still working. He said his co-workers are all talking about the contract.
"That's all anybody's talking about right now," he said. "People want it to be over with but at the same time, they also want to get back what they gave up back in '09."
Harris is referencing a time when the Big 3 were facing bankruptcy and the unions agreed to cut wages to help them bounce back. Now, the UAW is saying the automakers are seeing record profits.
"I haven't got anything in the last two contracts that benefits me," he said.
Harris said the tentative contract is nice for younger workers because of the wage increases, but he plans to retire soon, and like many of the people WTOL 11 spoke to, he would like to see a better pension.
"That pension is still below the poverty line," Harris, who voted no on the deal, said. "It's like $19,000. That's it. That's all you get when you retire."
Rockie Ness, who was a union representative at the plant and worked there for 40 years before retiring, feels a little different.
"Unfortunately for me, they have not had a pension raise in almost 20 years," Ness said.
While he agrees with what Harris had to say, he doesn't think they can get everything back in one contract. So, if he was still working, he said he would have voted yes.
"We didn't lose it in one year, you probably can't get it back in one contract," he said.
Though Harris voted no, he said if the contract passes he plans to keep working but is willing to return to the picket line to get a better deal.
"If that's what we have to do, then that's what we'll do," he said.