As of 5:45 p.m. on Wednesday, a little more than half of the UAW workers have voted to reject the deal.
Advertisement
For it to be approved, a majority of Ford’s almost 53,000 workers nationwide must vote in favor of the agreement. Workers at the Kansas City Assembly Plant narrowly defeated it as well.
Under UAW rules, the union leadership could declare the deal ratified since 55% of the overall workforce voted for it. That happened at Chrysler in 2011.
The move has been in the works for months, but comes against the backdrop of scandal at Volkswagen, which has been the UAW’s chief target among foreign automakers in the U.S.
“We remain committed to obtaining an agreement that is good for employees and the business”, said GM spokeswoman Katie McBride.
Final results will not be known until at least Friday night, with a UAW announcement due on Saturday, Settles said. “That is not how real negotiations go”, he said. And they warned that workers may not get a better deal if this one is voted down.
That wage progression largely follows a pattern that the UAW set in September when it reached an agreement with FCA. Workers commenting on the Local 551 Facebook page urged colleagues not to “sell out” to management, who they say have not gone far enough to make workers whole for what they’ve given up over the last nine years. “Many of the membership at the truck plant are from closed plants and this is huge”. She said that she will recommend that UAW President Dennis Williams and the union’s worldwide Executive Board ratify the agreement.
Similar sentiments caused Fiat Chrysler workers to reject the first contract the union negotiated in September and send their leaders back to the bargaining table. The contract eliminates the two-tiered wage agreement which the UAW reluctantly agreed to in 2007 with Ford on the brink of bankruptcy.
“Workers think this is a pretty healthy time, this is a pretty healthy company”, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the worldwide Labor Group of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, MI.
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. “The workers made concessions and many feel the concessions should be given back”.
“Yeah, I would have liked to have seen more”.
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.
Advertisement
Details of the tentative Ford contract have yet to be released.
