UAW Ford members have voted narrowly to support the agreement.
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The three contracts cover about 142,000 workers. “It passed and it was the majority decision”. “If not now, when will we get it back?”
The deal offers Ford’s 53,000 hourly workers a signing bonus of $8,500, plus a $1,500 advance on next year’s profit-sharing payout, which is expected to be more than $6,600.
The UAW defended the ability of a minority of its members to hold up ratification even if the majority has voted for a proposed contract.
“General Motors is pleased that the UAW membership ratified the 2015 UAW-GM National Agreement, which is good for employees and the business”, Katie McBride, GM spokeswoman said in a statement. In an interview with WFPL News on Friday, UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn said a variety of issues contributed to the workers’ vote. “The voice of the majority has secured a strong future that will provide job security and economic stability for themselves and their families”, UAW President Dennis Williams said.
The deal also would, over eight years, close a pay gap between veteran workers and those hired since 2007, who were paid at a significantly lower pay scale.
The GM deal is more generous than the one that the UAW recently negotiated at Fiat Chrysler, but not quite as generous as the deal at Ford. Ford is concluding voting today, and the results have not yet been released as of this writing. With more than 41,000 votes counted, 51 percent voted in favor, according to a tally obtained by Insider Louisville. That included more than 65 percent at LAP and the Kentucky Truck Plant who voted against it Tuesday.
But union leaders warned that they might not get a better deal from Ford if workers rejected the agreement and sent them back to the bargaining table.
A defeat for the contract could have left Ford facing a strike for the first time in 39 years.
The contract raises the wages of all hourly employees. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles costs will rise to $56 per hour by 2019, up from $47 per hour before its workers ratified a new four-year contract that went into effect last month.
Featured image of Louisville Assembly Plant from Google Maps. Several, including an LAP worker from the Toledo area, said she plans to apply as soon as possible. “It’s kind of a no-brainer”.
The UAW doesn’t have the clout it once did because as the Detroit Three have diminished through the decades, so has the union’s membership and power.
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After meeting with skilled trades workers, the union renewed talks with GM and both sides agreed to changes that protected seniority rights and a few job classifications, the union said. The Associated Press and the Detroit Free Press also contributed to the story.
