After negotiations between the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company that began this summer, the two sides reached a tentative contract on Monday.
The over 52,000 union members who work for Ford (F) still have to ratify the deal, but the New York Times reports that it has found strong support among local UAW leaders. The contract promises similar pay increases that were included in both the Fiat Chrysler deal as well as the General Motors contract, which has yet to be approved. It will also eliminate the wage gap between newer hires and more seasoned employees, which UAW president Dennis Williams has made a top priority in contract negotiations.
If the Ford contract is ratified, union members will receive an $8,500 signing bonus, up $500 from GM’s proposed deal and $4,500 from Fiat’s approved deal. In addition to the signing bonus, Ford workers would also receive a $1,500 advance on annual profit-sharing payouts. UAW’s top Ford negotiator, James Settles Jr., is calling this proposal a “hard earned victory.”
Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who has previously worked with the UAW, told the Times that this Ford deal is “a modestly richer agreement” made possible by the fact that Ford did not go bankrupt during the recession and, as a result, has been showing strong results recently.
Regarding negotiations overall, between the UAW and the three Detroit automakers, Shaiken says that the most damaging possibility for these companies would be to come out of negotiations with “disgruntled” employees. He adds, “Some of these workers have been to hell and back in the last decade.”
Ford workers will begin voting on this contract next week.