Workers at Two Major Ford Factories Reject Labor Pact
November 18 2015 - 11:10AM
Dow Jones News
The United Auto Workers' effort to ratify a new labor deal with
Ford Motor Co. suffered a significant blow with two major factories
in Kentucky rejecting the agreement by a roughly two-thirds
majority.
While voting isn't set to conclude until Friday, the two
factories have a total of 9,400 Ford workers, enough to cast doubt
over whether UAW leaders will be able to win adequate membership
support to ratify this latest contract.
At other plants, results have been mixed, according to tallies
provided to The Wall Street Journal.
Workers at several smaller components factories and two major
assembly plants have approved the deal, while four other plants,
including Ford's 7,500-worker truck factory in Kansas City, have
voted to reject the contract. The Ford-UAW agreement covers 52,900
U.S. workers at the auto maker.
UAW President Dennis Williams is under intense pressure to get
the Ford agreement ratified after running into resistance getting
contract proposals at General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles NV approved by the rank-and-file. It took two rounds of
bargaining at Fiat Chrysler to strike a deal that members would
ratify. GM's ratification vote is on hold after a smaller group of
skilled trade workers rejected the deal earlier this month.
The UAW's top bargainer for Ford, Jimmy Settles, has taken the
unusual step of calling a news conference Wednesday in Dearborn,
Mich., hoping to sway workers to vote in favor of the proposed
contract. The contract secures $9 billion in new investment for
Ford's U.S. factories and offers workers $10,000 in upfront signing
and profit-sharing bonuses.
Dearborn is home to one of the UAW's largest union chapters,
representing about 6,500 workers at three Ford plants.
Several workers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal say the
Ford proposal doesn't go far enough to roll back concessions agreed
to by the union to help the no. 2 U.S. auto maker survive in times
of financial distress. One of the biggest sticking points is that
the proposal doesn't close a $9-an-hour pay gap between entry-level
and veteran workers within the course of the agreement, these
workers say.
Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2015 10:55 ET (15:55 GMT)
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