Workers at the General Motors plant in Brazil ended their six-day strike after the automaker agreed to drop the planned lay off of 800 employees.

Reuters reports the union and GM agreed to a compromise after the longest strike the company has faced in 12 years. GM agreed to furlough 650 workers for five months. This is with a guarantee they will get their jobs back.

The company also promised not to retaliate against workers for walking off the job. Stoppage days will also not be deducted from worker pay.

Workers halted production last week in protest of GM's proposal to furlough close to 800 workers for two months before laying them off in April.

In the past, GM has cut its payrolls at the factory from 7,500 workers in 2012 to about 5,200 currently.

On Thursday, the metalworkers union of Sao Jose dos Campos voted to reinstate their leadership by a three-to-one margin. With the union leaders' reelection, workers demonstrated the desire to continue with the more confrontational union tactics.

The union's leadership also called for a strike of plane maker Embraer SA last year. The group's leaders says their continued criticism of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff is appealing to workers.

Rousseff's popularity has plummeted in recent months due to the country's flailing economy.

"The country is fed up with the president. When she went after the pensions, that was checkmate for us," said Wagner Morais de Oliveira, an Embraer employee backing union leaders.

The auto industry in Brazil experienced thousands of layoffs last year. Nearly 12,000 workers were laid off due to the country's suffering economy.

Auto workers with Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz have gone on strike in the past after experiencing the loss of 7 percent of their colleagues last year. Volkswagen's factory in Sao Bernardo do Campo experienced a 10-day strike last month, after the company announced plans to lay off 800 workers.

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