The vote was 1,258 for to 2,341 against at the Kentucky Truck Plant and 1,221 for to 2,585 against at Louisville Assembly Plant.
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Leaders of the United Auto Workers union scrambled Wednesday to salvage a proposed labor agreement with Ford Motor Co F.N , warning rank-and-file members that a rejection of the deal could jeopardize investments that would sustain US factory jobs.
At the Chicago Assembly Plant, 68 percent of more than 3,000 UAW members voting rejected the contract.
Jimmy Settles, the United Auto Workers vice president in charge negotiating with Ford, is conducting an unusual press conference Wednesday at Ford’s largest union local in Dearborn, Michigan, to try to get out the yes vote. For instance, entry level production workers now paid between $15.78 and $19.28 per hour would see their wages increase to between $17 and $22.50 per hour and would eventually earn about $29 per hour.
“If they don’t get what they want, they could go on strike and shut down the whole facility”, said Raudabaugh, a law professor at Ave Maria University.
The mission inside the local 600 union hall is clear; turn a tentative deal for UAW Ford employees into a signed one, because going back to the drawing board means nothing is guaranteed. Volkswagen, which had earlier been the most supportive of the UAW among foreign automakers with USA plants, fought the petition by the UAW for a vote of 165 skilled trades workers at the plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A majority of Ford’s 52,900 factory workers in the USA have to approve the contract for it to be ratified. The UAW said last week it has re-entered talks with GM in order to resolve concerns from skilled-trades workers who rejected a tentative deal, even as production workers voted “yes”.
One of the biggest complaints about the agreement is that it does not provide a fast enough progression to the top wage for workers hired after 2007.
Samples said a few believe the two-tiered wage system should have been phased out in four years rather than eight years. “We are working everyday to get this ratified”. “The workers made concessions and many feel the concessions should be given back”.
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.
“We did give up a lot in previous contracts and the next contract, if Ford’s doing well, I think we’ll be able to get more of it back”, said Pruchnicki of Lorain.
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Leading up to negotiations this year, UAW President Dennis Williams and Settles repeatedly promised workers that this round of talks represented “our time” to recover what had been given up to help the company through the downturn.
