The strike at the American Axle plant in Three Rivers began February 26th, and only now, some 12-weeks later is a possible end in sight.

The strike has already been the fourth longest in the history of the big three, according to Dave Morris, the Chairman of the Bargaining Committee for U.A.W. local 2093.

On Monday, some 800-striking workers in Three Rivers cast ballots to help decide the fate of a tentative contract agreement with the company.

The workers in Three Rivers are part of some 3,600 in Michigan and New York that will vote on the pact by the end of the week.

The atmosphere in Three Rivers today was described as “somber” and funeral like. The tentative agreement calls for deep cuts in wages. “The membership is being asked to go from $28 an hour to $17.50 and $18,” said Morris.

While a lot of things have changed since workers hit the picket line, many of those changes seemed to hurt the worker’s cause. “We had trouble gaining leverage throughout this battle. Gas prices went up for four dollars a gallon, they were delivering axles out of Mexico,” said Morris.

Needless to say, in voting on the tentative contract today, workers had a lot to lose.

“We lost wages, we lost vacation and we don’t really know everything yet, because we haven’t had time to digest, we got the contract paper yesterday about 22 hours ago now,” said Dan Bloom, a striking worker from Three Rivers.

One critical thing the workers didn’t lose is their plant. For now, it appears the jobs won’t be moved to Mexico.

“It’s mostly acceptable because we need to stay open. Most of us need to work, and uh especially for the younger people here now that aren’t ready to retire,” said Bill “Snake” Stanczyk.

The union also sought to buy “time,” by accepting the wage and benefit cuts.

“We hope some laws will change on the political arena to start saving these, help us save these middle class jobs in America, manufacturing especially,” said Morris.

While the lower wage scale would start immediately, it would actually be phased in from the worker’s perspective.

Workers would receive three years worth of additional payments designed to cushion the blow of the lower hourly wage.

While workers in Three Rivers have finished voting, the results of the ratification won’t likely be known until the end of the week.