The United Auto Workers union said late Friday that the contract passed with a 51.4 percent vote.
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Both GM and the union have known since November 6 that a majority of those UAW workers at GM voted to ratify the agreement.
The contract discussion between GM and the UAW had re-opened after workers in the skilled trades’ classifications rejected the contract. GM skilled trades workers also have told The Detroit News they are concerned re-classifications could require them to do multiple jobs, leading to issues around safety and loss of seniority or shift preferences.
UAW leaders have been meeting with the holdouts since then, and on Friday the leaders said they had chose to declare the contract ratified – a move that is allowed under the union’s rues.
The Ford proposal, which covers more than 52,000 workers, is considered the most generous of the three deals between the union and the automakers. It raises wages and promises $8.3 billion in USA factory investments over four years.
“This agreement provides a good foundation for Ford Motor Co., our employees and our communities as we work together to create an even stronger business in the years ahead”, Ford’s labor chief, John Fleming, said in a statement. Working Local 600, the leadership said that even if they went back to the bargaining table – if the pact was voted down – there was no guarantee there would be a better contract. More than 92 percent of Ford’s salaried workers under the UAW also voted in favor.
The economic provisions in the GM contract are virtually identical to the union’s contract with Ford.
The average labor costs, of which pay is almost half, for GM workers will be $60 per hour by 2019, up from $55 an hour now, according to a new study by labor analysts released on Friday. “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.
A defeat for the contract could have left Ford facing a strike for the first time in 39 years. The wage hikes are the first in a decade. GM’s per hour labor are up US$5 and Ford’s rose US$3. It includes a signing bonus, profit sharing plan, and other lump-sum payments likely to add up to tens of thousands of dollars for each worker over four years.
Schwartz said employers appear to have put most of the cost of the contract in cash, potentially reducing the auto makers’ liability in years beyond 2019. Fiat Chrysler workers approved their contract in October.
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A similar deal was ratified last month by workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, one of Detroit’s so-called Big Three automakers along with Ford and General Motors.
