The United Auto Workers union said Oct. 25 it has reached a tentative contract agreement with Ford that could be a breakthrough toward ending the nearly 6-week-old strikes against Detroit automakers.
The four-year deal still needs to be approved by the 57,000 union members, however this deal has the potential to end the ongoing strikes against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
This tentative deal could lay the foundation for the other automakers to make their deal to end the 6-week long strike.
UAW called on all workers at Ford to return to their jobs and said that will put pressure on GM and Stellantis to bargain.
“We told Ford to pony up, and they did,” President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. “We won things no one thought possible.” He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15.
UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour.
Previously, the automaker’s best offer included 23% pay increases, which the UAW rejected saying it was too low of an offer.
“Thanks to the power of our members on the picket line and the threat of more strikes to come, we have won the most lucrative agreement per member since Walter Reuther was president,” Browning said. Reuther led the union from 1946 until his death in 1970.
Workers with pensions also will see increases for when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases, Browning added.
“That means they can’t keep devastating our communities and closing plants with no consequences,” Browning said. “Together we have made history.”
“This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country,” Fain said.
