UAW President Shawn Fain updated rank and file members of the Detroit Three automakers on Wednesday during a Facebook Live event.
Many union members are returning to work after the six-week-long strike — and voting whether to ratify tentative agreements with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
Fain said the agreements provide historic gains in wages, end wage tiers, and restore cost of living increases.
He said for the first time, automakers also agreed to pay workers for each day they were on the picket line or laid off due to the strike.
While the agreements also include an increase in company contributions to worker 401(k) retirement plans, they do not restore retiree health care plans, or company pensions. Fain said the issue will come up again, during negotiations for the next contract.
"We didn't win on this issue," Fain said. "The fact is, both of these issues are extremely difficult and expensive to fix, primarily because the Big Three, being so driven by Wall Street, refuse to have the liability on their books. What we did win in this contract will still change many lives, and it will change the playing field in our fight for retirement security."
Ford workers are the furthest along in the ratification process. About half of Ford's facilities have completed voting.
A majority of workers at each of those facilities have voted to ratify, and many plants voted to ratify by overwhelming margins.
