The United Auto Workers union said on Friday that its members ratified a new four-year labor contract with General Motors Co., ending the strike with the No. 1 U.S. automaker after 40 days, Reuters reported. The union, which wrung higher pay and other benefits from GM as part of the deal to end the strike by about 48,000 workers, said 57 percent of the members voted to approve the deal. UAW officials and striking workers on the picket lines had said their focus in the dispute with GM was on jobs, pay equity and fairness for workers who made concessions in 2009 to help GM through its government-led bankruptcy. They also wanted to save factories in Ohio and Michigan GM had threatened to close.
