The four-year tentative agreement between the UAW and General Motors (GM) provides jobs for UAW members who have been laid off over the past several years, creates and retains more than 17,000 jobs and brings production back to the United States that had been moved to Mexico and other parts of the world.

The UAW reached a tentative agreement with General Motors Co. (GM) late last night. The union says the new pact, which covers 48,500 employees, achieved some major goals, including significant investments and products for GM plants, creating good new U.S. jobs and bringing back to this country some overseas manufacturing.

Two years ago, the U.S. auto industry was on the verge of collapse. General Motors Corp. (GM) had filed for bankruptcy and had just begun to reorganize with $30 billion from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Chrysler, also with TARP support, reached a partnership deal with Fiat and began its climb from bankruptcy.

Today, six years ahead of schedule, Chrysler Corp. repaid the last of its $8.5 billion in loans the Obama administration made to the troubled carmaker in April 2009 to help keep Chrysler afloat and save the jobs of tens of thousands of Chrysler workers and workers in the supply chain.