Members of the United Auto Workers union picket outside the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 26, 2023.
Matthew Hatcher | AFP | Getty Images
DETROIT — Union members at Ford Motor approved a tentative agreement Friday, concluding contentious contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and Detroit automakers.
UAW-Ford workers were the last of the automakers to ratify their pact after General Motors workers narrowly approved an agreement Thursday and Stellantis workers supported their agreement, in line with preliminary vote results published Friday by the union.
In line with the UAW’s vote tracker, which must still be finalized, the Ford deal was supported by 68.2% of the nearly 35,000 autoworkers at Ford who voted. There have been still just a few smaller facilities left to finalize voting, but there aren’t enough employees at those locations to offset the greater than 12,600-vote margin.
Local UAW chapters representing every Ford plant voted in favor of the pact except for a small parts facility in Florida and the automaker’s massive Kentucky Truck Plant, as of early Friday afternoon. The plant that pushed ratification over the sting was the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, with roughly 2,700 members voting in support of the deal by 78.7%, in line with the union’s vote tracker.
Ford and the UAW didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
The contract ratifications come weeks after the automakers and union reached tentative deals, ending about six weeks of targeted strikes by the UAW. The strikes, which began on Sept. 15, involved targeted work stoppages that expanded plant by plant as a method of ratcheting up pressure on the automakers.
Preliminary results at Stellantis showed 68.4% support by hourly workers who voted. At GM, the vote returned 54.7% approval.
GM’s voting was closer, partially, attributable to the demographics of the corporate’s workforce. The automaker has the very best variety of traditional workers on a percentage basis compared with its crosstown rivals. Such workers have voiced disapproval for the wage increases granted to them by the deals, compared with those offered to newer hires. They were also dissatisfied with pension contributions and retirement advantages.
Still, the agreements are record-setting for the union, which was way more confrontational and strategic through the talks than in recent history, as promised by UAW President Shawn Fain, who began leading the union in March.
The deals include wage increases of not less than 25%, the return of cost-of-living adjustments and other economic improvements. The union said improvements are valued at greater than 4 times the gains from the 2019 contract and supply more in base wage increases than workers have received up to now 22 years.
For the union and Fain, the deals and the associated economic gains assist in efforts to grow the union’s ranks through inclusion of future jobs similar to those at battery plants and organizing at other nonunion automakers operating within the U.S.
For the businesses in addition to their investors, the contracts represent the highest end of forecast increases in labor costs.
Ford CFO John Lawler in October said the UAW deal, if ratified by members, would add $850 to $900 in costs per vehicle assembled. He said Ford will work to “find productivity and efficiencies and value reductions throughout the corporate” to offset the extra costs and deliver on previously announced profitability targets.