The UAW and Ford Motor Co. reached a proposed tentative labor agreement late Wednesday, the union said.
Ford union local leaders said they've been told to prepare for a UAW National Ford Council meeting in Dearborn on Friday.
Negotiating teams led by Rory Gamble, vice president of the UAW Ford Department, and Bill Dirksen, Ford's vice president of labor affairs, achieved agreement rapidly, after starting discussion "in earnest" Monday of economic issues. Contract talks with the Detroit Three shifted to Ford after GM workers, who went on strike for six weeks, ratified their deal on Friday.
This proposed contract will cover 55,000 hourly Ford autoworkers in the United States, the most of the domestic automakers.
“Our national negotiators elected by their local unions have voted unanimously to recommend to the UAW-Ford National Council the proposed tentative agreement,” Gamble said in a prepared statement released just before 9 p.m. “Our negotiating team worked diligently during the General Motors strike to maintain productive negotiations with Ford. The pattern bargaining strategy has been a very effective approach for UAW and its members to secure economic gains around salary, benefits and secured over $6 billion in major product investments in American facilities, creating and retaining over 8,500 jobs for our communities.”
He added, “Out of respect for our members, we will refrain from commenting or releasing full details of the agreement until the UAW-Ford Council leaders meet and review the details."
Among those details is the ratification bonus amount, which was $11,000 for GM workers after their strike. Ford's bonus is expected to be less. Given the quickness of the settlement, it's likely Ford accepted the terms to give temporary workers a path to regular employment and many other provisions negotiated with GM.
After the UAW Ford Council members have an opportunity to review the deal, they vote on sending it to members for ratification. Workers then have an opportunity to review the contract and vote on whether to approve it, said UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg.
Negotiators had worked until 3 a.m. Wednesday, people close to the talks said.
Ford's Dirksen said in a prepared statement, "Ford can confirm the UAW’s announcement that the UAW and Ford have reached a proposed tentative agreement on a four-year contract. Further details will be provided at a later date."
The deal unfolded in talks at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, following the brutal negotiations with GM. GM and its UAW workers clashed over wage increases, the use of temporary workers and what the company will invest in U.S. plants over the four-year life of the contract.
In pattern bargaining, the GM deal became a template for talks with Ford and, finally, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Health care costs were a key issue, with Ford spending $1 billion a year to cover hourly workers. People with knowledge of the talks said from the start that Ford would not seek to add to health care costs for workers or diminish quality of care but, rather, seek to creatively contain company expense.
Details about the proposed Ford contract were unavailable immediately. A quick agreement suggests that Ford challenged few of the "pattern" elements set by GM.
Here are a few highlights from the new GM contract:
- UAW-represented GM workers get a ratifcation bonus of $11,000. Temporary workers get $4,500.
- So-called in-progression workers hired after 2007 get a faster path to top pay. Under the previous contract, those workers started at $17 an hour, reaching $28/hour after eight years. Under the proposal, that is shortened to four years and top pay reaches $32.32/hour.
- Temporary workers, who have been paid $15-19 an hour with inferior benefits to permanent autoworkers, get a path to a permanent role starting Jan. 1. Part-time workers get a path to regular status starting in 2021. These workers also get improved paid and unpaid time off.
- The union has approval authority and the ability to monitor the number of temporary employees working in the plants. Furthermore, the company now must have approval of the union to supplement the workforce for straight time, overtime or weekend work in any plant covered by the UAW GM National Agreement. The company may use part-time temporary employees only with UAW approval.
Ford, unlike GM, has not closed or threatened to close anyU.S. plants and has not located high-profit projects outside the United States, as GM had done. Based on interviews with UAW leaders and factory workers, Ford was never a strike target.
Officially, union leaders and Ford opened discussions July 15 and have been talking in subcommittees about noneconomic issues while the UAW hammered out the full deal with GM.
GM versus Ford
A few weeks ago, in the heat of bargaining with GM, some UAW leaders suggested disrupting talks with GM and pivoting to Ford would produce better results, saying talks with Ford were expected to involve little drama.
Ford and the UAW agreed to focus on issues related to job security, health and safety, attendance and time off, seniority, pension and a 401(k)-like retirement program, continuous improvements and joint programs.
More: UAW-GM deal calls for raises, $11K ratification bonus, Lordstown closure, pathway for temps
More: Strike over! UAW workers ratify contract with GM. Here's what's next
More: Ford, UAW negotiators meet in Dearborn for 'final stretch' of contract talks
Top wage: $32.32 an hour
Ford’s workforce composition is closer to that of GM, whereas Fiat Chrysler has more temporary workers and a higher percentage of in-progression workers with an eight-year "grow-in" period for full-time workers to reach top wages. Overall, FCA has a younger workforce. The period to reach top pay was cut in half to four years in the GM contract, and the top wage set at $32.32.
Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in labor and the global economy said, "No question, Ford has the best relationship with the UAW of any of the Detroit Three automakers."
Will members approve?
Now the UAW will begin the process of ratification. Assuming Ford workers OK the deal, the union then will move to Fiat Chrysler, to craft the third and final four-year labor contract.
With a proposed tentative agreement in hand, the union will call its National Ford Council, which comprises all UAW local leaders to review it and vote to submit it to members. If they do so, it will then go before Ford’s 55,000 UAW members for a ratification vote.
Ratification is not a typical election process. The UAW notifies the locals on when to hold rollout meetings that outline the proposal. The local UAW election committees then select the voting day and times. The committees tally the paper ballots and submit those results to the UAW International.
Here are the details:
- Ratification requires 50% of the total members plus one.
- Each local UAW holds informational meetings at its choosing.
- The voting is scheduled and run by UAW local election committees.
- The local UAW halls use paper ballots.
- The local UAW's election committees count the ballots and report totals to headquarters in Detroit.
- The local election committees police themselves; there's no overall audit of the vote.
2,000 jobs + 10,000 temps
Ford contract details aren't yet known.
GM kept three U.S. factories closed: Lordstown Assembly in Ohio and Warren and Baltimore transmission plants. It did agree to provide an electric pickup and other electric vehicles to Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly to build. Detroit Hamtramck, which in November was designated to go idle, will also build battery modules. The investment there will create some 2,000 jobs at full production.
GM gave in on health care, agreeing to not raise the cost for union members, making it difficult for Ford to address one of its key issues.
GM also created a pathway for temporary workers to be hired permanently. It’s expected FCA will resist that, given it has the largest count of temporary workers of the Detroit Three, at about 10,000 temps.
Big money
Back in 2015, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers received signing bonuses of $3,000 to $4,000. Ford workers received $8,500 in a signing bonus — plus a $1,500 pull-ahead in profit sharing — to give Ford workers $10,000 upon ratification in late 2015.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222-6512 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter. Free Press columnist Susan Tompor contributed to this report.
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