UAW workers ratify contract at GM Kansas plant

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The deal capped a series of agreements over the past week for GM that resolved labor disputes that had emerged as a potential drag on its turnaround efforts along with the sagging U.S. economy and rising gas prices.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Union workers ratified an agreement on Wednesday to end a two-week strike by the United Auto Workers at a plant in Kansas where General Motors Corp <GM.N> builds the popular Chevrolet Malibu sedan.

The deal capped a series of agreements over the past week for GM that resolved labor disputes that had emerged as a potential drag on its turnaround efforts along with the sagging U.S. economy and rising gas prices.

Members of UAW Local 31 in Fairfax, Kansas, voted by about an 88 percent margin among skilled trades workers and 85 percent among production workers to approve the agreement, the union local said on its website.

GM and the UAW said on Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement on a local contract that could clear the way for production on the Malibu to resume at the assembly plant.

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"We are pleased that members of UAW Local 31 ratified the agreement and now our focus is on resuming production," GM spokesman Dan Flores said, confirming that production was scheduled to resume with the first shift on Thursday.

GM reached a similar local contract at another GM assembly plant, a national agreement in Canada, and assisted American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc <AXL.N> in reaching a tentative agreement that could end a three-month UAW strike.

GM and the UAW reached a groundbreaking national contract last year intended to allow the automaker to reduce costs by introducing a second-tier wage and shifting health care liabilities to a union-affiliated trust fund.

But the automaker has struggled to get UAW bargaining units at the plant level to approve agreements on work rules and other local issues, including treatment of seniority rights.

Those local contract issues prompted the strike at GM's Fairfax plant and at a plant near Lansing, Michigan.

UAW workers at the Lansing Delta Township plant ratified a new local contract last week to end a month-long strike that had halted production of crossovers such as the Buick Enclave that, like the Malibu, have been selling well.

GM union workers in Canada also ratified a new three-year labor contract last week. The agreement covers about 15,000 GM workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers and allows GM to close a transmission plant in Windsor, Ontario.

GM also provided up to $218 million to support a tentative agreement between the UAW and American Axle last week. The last and biggest UAW local at American Axle votes on that agreement Thursday. Smaller local units have endorsed the deal.

The UAW's strike at American Axle had shut down most of GM's output of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles in North America, forcing the automaker to shut down about 30 plants at its peak due to parts shortages.

GM said the American Axle strike depressed earnings by $800 million in the first quarter and cost it 230,000 units of lost production through April.

(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Gary Hill, Phil Berlowitz)