The United Auto Workers union approved a new contract with General Motors on Friday, ending a strike that idled tens of thousands of workers for almost six weeks.
The union announced the result of the voting by 49,000 union members on its website. It did not provide a tally, but several key locals said their members had backed the accord by wide margins.
GM could call skilled-trades workers, who maintain production machinery, back to work as soon as Saturday to begin preparing plants to resume operations, two people with knowledge of the company's plans said.
In some locations, production could resume as soon as Monday, they said. Other factories that ran short of parts during the strike may take more time to restart.
The contract gives the union's GM workers a series of wage increases and a path for temporary workers to become permanent employees. All full-time hourly workers will be able to reach the top wage of $32 an hour within four years, putting an end to a two-tier wage system. Each UAW worker will also be paid a bonus of $11,000.
Mohawk shares jump 10.9 percent
Shares of Mohawk Industries Inc., rose more than 10.9% Friday after the company reported lower, but better than expected profits in the third quarter.
The world's biggest floorcovering manufacturer headquartered in Calhoun, Ga., said adjusted net earnings per share fell in the quarter by 16% from a year ago to $2.75 a share. But results were still 11 cents per share better than analysts forecasts.
Mohawk said its U.S. businesses presented the greatest challenges during the quarter given soft retail demand, impact of LVT, a stronger dollar and excess ceramic industry inventories.
Duties on imported ceramic tiles were increased by an additional 104% this fall, "which will largely stop shipments coming into the market," and should benefit Mohawk's domestic production, company CEO Jeff Lorberbaum said in a conference call with analysts on Friday. "In most regions significant political and trade uncertainties are affecting consumer confidence in spending," he added.
Mohawk shares rose $14.21 per share on Friday to close at $144.13 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Google digs more into small words
Google is paying more attention to the small words in your searches. Want to figure out how to park on a hill with no curb? Google now takes that "no" into account, and shows top results that include parking instructions without curbs.
The company is rolling out the change to English language searches in the U.S. starting this week. Google said it expects the shift will give better results for every one in 10 searches.
Tweaking its massive search engine is nothing new for Google. The company makes regular changes to be more accurate and show more useful results. But this one is the biggest the company has released in at least five years, said Pandu Nayak, Google's vice president of Search.
"It looks at the whole context of words to try to understand what's going on," he said.