The new contract runs through September 2019 and impacts 52,600 hourly plant workers across 40 General Motors plants in the U.S. It has been in the making for roughly four months, with the process to ratify the contract taking two weeks longer this year as a result of the majority of skilled trades workers voting against it.
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Ford had reached a deal with the UAW earlier this month but it hadn’t been ratified by members until Friday – 51% voted in favor.
A few of the plants where opposition was strongest, including Louisville Assembly, Kentucky Truck and Chicago Assembly, were promised more jobs and investments of at least $600 million. “The majority has secured a strong future that will provide job security and economic stability for themselves and their families”.
The nationally negotiated contract includes a number of wage increases, inflation adjustments, profit-sharing payments and a one-time $8,500 signing bonus for all UAW members.
Art Wheaton, a labor expert from Cornell, said the close vote means both sides did their job.
“Ford will continue to work with our U.A.W. associates to execute the deal, and employ our workers in enhancing the company and building great vehicles for our customers”, the statement said. Workers would received $10,000 bonuses, and retirees would get $1,000 total over the course of the four-year pact. Even though they were outnumbered by production workers, who approved it by 58% to 42%, the union’s constitution required meetings to learn the strongest objections were that led to skilled trades rejecting the contract.
The UAW’s top negotiator, Jimmy Settles, defended the contract and described the process as fair and democratic: “There is no higher authority than the membership”, he said. It was stated that the union’s executive board had formally ratified the agreement which is being seen as a huge positive and investors on the street.
Local United Auto Workers members had rejected the proposal earlier this week, placing the tentative agreement in jeopardy. The company already has added 500 people in the past year or so. UAW officials confirmed in discussing terms of a separate local agreement for KTP that employment levels would jump overall by 3,000 as the automaker ramps up production of the new aluminum-body F-series, which is scheduled to debut in 2017.
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One and Fiat Chrysler, the third of the Big Three automakers was followed by the arrangements. Several, including an LAP worker from the Toledo area, said she plans to apply as soon as possible. That included approval by 58 percent of the production workers, the larger group, while nearly 60 percent of the skilled-trades workers opposed the deal. And, like the deals with Fiat Chrysler andwith General Motors, workers hired after 2007 have a clear path to traditional wages. The Associated Press and the Detroit Free Press also contributed to the story.
