Skilled trades workers at the plant voted 64 percent in favor, according to postings on the union website.
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The Fiat Chrysler contract will serve as a template for both auto makers, even if the companies push for substantive changes.
UAW workers in Toledo and elsewhere shot down the original deal, raising prospects for a strike until the new agreement was reached last week.
Overall, 77 percent of UAW members voting said yes. “Because of the strength and support from our membership, our bargaining team was able to negotiate a contract which promises a secure future for our members, their families and their communities”.
Demond Clayton, a 29-year-old worker at a Fiat Chrysler factory in Detroit, said he voted yes on both this agreement and the earlier one, noting that pay raises are substantial, especially when compared with what workers earn in other industry sectors.
While the agreement the UAW reached with FCA provides a long-term pathway to the top wage it also effectively eliminates a cap on the number of entry level workers the automaker can hire and renames them “in progression employees”.
Once the agreement was ratified, the union would begin negotiations with Ford (F – Get Report) or General Motors (GM – Get Report). It was the first contract offer voted down in more than 30 years.
Results from 16 of 37 union locals at FCA plants in the USA, representing about 29,000 of 40,000 workers, were disclosed to reporters on Wednesday night.
One of those constructive ways was GM’s decision to pay $9,000 in profit sharing last spring to its full-time UAW workers, or about $2,400 more than they were entitled to under the 2011 contract, based on pretax profit in North America.
Under the current contract, those workers earn between $17 to $24 an hour, while veteran autoworkers earn at least $28 an hour and get a pension as well as retiree health benefits.
So what: The most significant concern was widespread dissatisfaction with a “two-tier” wage system instituted in 2007, when all three Detroit automakers were in deep financial trouble.
Those demands are nearly certain to make Ford and GM’s contracts more expensive than the FCA deal, which was ratified by a 3-to-1 ratio announced Thursday.
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That didn’t sit well with union members, but it was accepted at the time as a way to help the automakers reduce costs at a critical moment.
