The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Ford announced a tentative new labor deal with Ford aimed at bringing to an end the union’s strike which is currently in its sixth week.
The UAW initially sought pay raises for union autoworkers amounting to 40% over the course of a four-year contract, as well as a 32-hour work week and enhancements to benefits – while the automakers initially offered raises closer to 20% over a new contract with about 10% provided upon ratification of the new contract.
Ford and the UAW agreed to raise wages by 25% over the four-and-a-half-year contract with cost-of-living adjustments and an immediate 11% raise upon ratification. The agreement between Ford and the UAW would be tentative until it’s ratified by the union’s membership through a majority vote.
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About 57,000 Ford workers are represented by the union, and about 16,600 of whom are currently on strike while 3,167 were temporarily laid off due to the strike.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our U.S. operations,” Ford CEO and President Jim Farley said in a statement. “Ford is proud to assemble the most vehicles in America and employ the most hourly autoworkers. We are focused on restarting Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant and Chicago Assembly Plant, calling 20,000 Ford employees back to work and shipping our full lineup to customers again.”
“Today, we reached a tentative agreement with Ford – for months we said that record profits mean record contracts,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. “And UAW family, our stand up strike has delivered.”
UAW Vice President Chuck Browning added that, “We are calling on all Ford strikers to go back to work while we vote on our tentative agreement. Like everything we’ve done in this stand up strike, this is a strategic move to get the best deal possible. We’re going back to work at Ford to keep the pressure on Stellantis and GM. The last thing they want is for Ford to get back to full capacity while they mess around and lag behind.”
The UAW strike began on Sept. 15 with a simultaneous strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers – Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which is the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram.
It launched what it called a “stand up strike” in which specific locals are asked to go on strike at their facilities. Over 45,000 union autoworkers are currently on strike – about one-third of the roughly 150,000 total workers across the three companies.
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The union will need to reach separate agreements with each automaker on new labor contracts covering their respective employees.
FOX Business’ Philip Bodinet contributed to this report.