They voted yesterday on the proposed four-year labor deal, which was negotiated by the national UAW and Ford officials. Wage increases of $10,633, plus a variety of bonuses and guaranteed payouts boosted the average Ford production worker’s pay by $32,513 over the life of the contract, according to the union.
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The 7,500 union workers at Claycomo were among the first to vote on the contract, and they narrowly rejected the agreement. The meetings come as a result of a majority of skilled trades voting against the new GM-UAW contract, thereby preventing the ratification of the deal and causing GM and the UAW to extend the outgoing contract by a week.
“We’re optimistic”, Settles told reporters.
“The irony of negotiations is when you go back to the table, everything’s off the table”, Settle said. “A lot of people, especially younger people, think you just go and open door No. 2 and see if something is behind door No. 2”.
All it takes to reject the deal is a majority of votes so union leadership is trying whatever they can to get the members yet to vote to support the deal and even held a news conference to get their message across.
There are about 162 skilled trades workers at the plant, making up about 12 percent of the total blue-collar workforce.
Scott Houldieson, vice president of Local 551 in Chicago, where workers voted Wednesday, said members who were rejecting the contract believed it did not make up for the sacrifices that helped save Ford.
“Make misnomers to start havoc by not telling the truth and it’s hard to track all that and that’s a problem”, UAW VP Jimmy Settles said.
Former NLRB member John Raudabaugh, who was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, said he disagrees with the move away from requiring “wall-to-wall” bargaining units for all workers. The contract eliminates the two-tiered wage agreement which the UAW reluctantly agreed to in 2007 with Ford on the brink of bankruptcy.
But workers like Mary Donovan Springowski, a team leader at an engine plant in Cleveland, are opposed to the contract, in part, because it includes all-new, lower pay rates for workers at three of Ford’s plants – Rawsonville, Sterling Axle and Woodhaven Stamping. “They felt if they’re not going to get back the concessions they gave up now, when will they get them back?”
It could also signal a new strategy for the UAW for gaining a foothold at other foreign manufacturers in the region, said Cornell University labor relations professor Richard Hurd.
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UAW efforts to advance its standing among plant workers has continued since the failed election, advocating for a German-style works council model of employee representation at the plant, mirroring what VW has at the rest of its assembly plants worldwide.
