The new contract gives workers their first raise in a decade, profit sharing and other lump-sum payments.
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The union’s governing body, known as the global Executive Board and composed to UAW President Dennis Williams, vice presidents and regional directors, approved the agreement. “The majority has secured a strong future that will provide job security and economic stability for themselves and their families”. The UAW said 51.3 per cent of production workers and 52.4 per cent of skilled trades workers voted in favour of the new contract, after more than a week of voting that concluded at U.S. operations of Ford on Friday night.
“There is no higher authority than the membership”, UAW President Jimmy Settles said.
Announcing the ratification with GM, UAW said in a statement, “Following discussions with GM, the parties agreed to changes that protect core trades classifications and seniority rights”.
UAW members have demanded a greater payback for helping their companies survive the recession.
General Motors said it is pleased the UAW ratified the agreement, calling it good for both workers and the company.
About 55% of the 52,600 union workers at General Motors had voted in favor of the deal earlier this month. This was a bone of contention for a few union members.
The review of skilled trades workers concerns found they had issues pertaining to local contract agreements, reclassification of trades, numbers of apprentices, concern over outsourcing or loss of jobs and the absence of cost of living increases and buyouts.
Hourly labor costs are lower for most of the foreign automakers with United States plants, which puts a lid on wages and benefits of the Detroit Three automakers. 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.
Ford’s union workers in Louisville rejected the contract by a more than 60 percent margin earlier this week. Workers would received $10,000 bonuses, and retirees would get $1,000 total over the course of the four-year pact.
The Ford deal, the richest of the three contracts, promises $9 billion in factory upgrades and expansions that created or preserved 8,500 jobs in the U.S. They also wanted a two-tier wage system eliminated more rapidly instead of over eight years. The agreement covers 53,000 US hourly workers at 22 plants. Cost is not expected to rise as much as it had in contracts before 2009, he said.
This fall’s round of contract talks has been hard for the union.
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The narrow approval avoids a potentially contentious and embarrassing situation for the UAW’s leadership, which also had trouble getting deals ratified with Fiat Chrysler and General Motors.
