With this contract the UAW says there’s a plan for Ford’s more recent, lower-paid workers to eventually make higher wages.
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After the first Fiat Chrysler contract was rejected, union leaders renegotiated a deal that put more money in members’ paychecks, including a larger bonus for ratifying the agreement.
The push for passage comes after workers turned down the deal at two light-truck factories in Louisville, Kentucky; another F-150 plant near Kansas City, Missouri; and two engine facilities in Ohio.
Dennis Williams, the president of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) have announced in a press release that they will be extending the deadline for the ratification of the deal the union made with General Motors Company (GM).
For Settles and the UAW, a failure to convince Ford workers to vote in favor of a national contract that delivers an $8,500 signing bonus and a $1,500 early profit-sharing payment would be a potentially embarrassing blow.
“We remain committed to obtaining an agreement that is good for employees and the business”, said GM spokeswoman Katie McBride.
He added, “A lot of people, especially younger people, think you just go and open door No. 2 and see if something is behind door No. 2”. 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”. But according to reports in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, close to a third of eligible workers have voted.
Its goals are to improve wages and working conditions among German automotive employers and to promote the German-style “works councils” to represent both hourly and salaried plant employees.
Ford’s deal, which was completed after GM workers had finished voting, appears to have anticipated the objections raised by GM’s skilled tradespeople.
“It would be very hard to tell their unionized workers back in Germany – who also have a say in how the companies are run – that it’s very important to be non-union in the United States”, he said. “Did I get everything back? No”.
The pay gap between veteran workers and new hires will gradually be eliminated, thereby allowing entry-level, or two-tier workers to reach a top wage of about $29 an hour in eight years. “If they’re not gonna recoup all the concessions they’ve made in the past now, when are they going to recoup them?”
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Kenneth Dau-Schmidt, a labor law professor at Indiana University, said he would expect the UAW to focus on other German automakers such as the Mercedes plant in Alabama and BMW in SC because of the strong influence unions have in their home territories. The NLRB rejected VW’s request that all maintenance and production workers be included in the election.
