DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union said Wednesday that it has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with Ford that could be a breakthrough in ending the nearly six-week-old strikes against automakers in Detroit.
The four-year deal, which still needs to be approved by 57,000 of the company’s union members, could end the union’s series of strikes against select factories owned by Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis.
The Ford deal could set the pattern for agreements with the other two automakers where workers continue to strike. The UAW called on all Ford workers to return to their jobs, saying this would put pressure on GM and Stellantis to negotiate. Announcements will follow later.
“We told Ford to pay attention, and they did,” President Shawn Fain said in a video address to members. “We won things that no one thought possible.” He added that Ford had put 50% more money on the table than before the strike began on September 15.
UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, Ford’s chief negotiator, said workers would receive a 25% across-the-board wage increase as well as a cost-of-living increase that would bring the wage increase by more than 30% to more than $40 an hour for top workers at assembly plants until the end of the contract.
Previously, Ford, Stellantis and General Motors each offered a 23% pay increase. When talks began, Ford offered 9%.
Assembly workers will receive 11% after ratification, nearly equal to all the wage increases workers have seen since 2007, Browning said.
Typically in past auto strikes, a UAW deal with one automaker resulted in the other companies matching it with their own settlements.
GM said in a statement it was working “constructively” with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible. Stellantis also said it was committed to reaching an agreement “that gets everyone back to work as quickly as possible.”
Browning said temporary workers will receive more raises than in the last 22 years combined. Temporary workers would receive raises of more than 150% and retirees would receive annual bonuses, he said.
“Thanks to the power of our members on the picket lines and the threat of further strikes, we have achieved the most lucrative per-member agreement since the presidency of Walter Reuther,” Browning said. Reuther led the union from 1946 until his death in 1970.
Fain said the union’s national leadership council of local union leaders and negotiators will travel to Detroit on Sunday, where they will receive a presentation of the agreement and vote on whether to recommend it to members. The union will host a Facebook Live video appearance on Sunday evening and later hold regional meetings to explain the deal to members.
While on a picket line at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant west of Detroit on Wednesday evening, local union leaders invited workers across the street to the union hall for a briefing on the deal. As they left the building, many were smiling and most were relieved.
“It’s an emotional time for me. I’m emotional,” worker Keith Jurgelewicz said as tears welled in his eyes. “But I’m just really happy that it’s over. I can’t wait to get back to work and just get on with my life.”
Jurgelewicz said he was glad the strike ended during his shift at the picket line, where he was faithfully present throughout all of his shifts.
“Hopefully GM and Stellantis can get their deals done. …Historic day for us,” he said.
In a statement, President Joe Biden, who visited GM pickets near Detroit at the start of the strikes and described himself as the most pro-union president in American history, praised the deal. “I have always believed that the middle class built America and unions built the middle class,” Biden said. “This tentative agreement is a testament to the power of employers and workers coming together to resolve their differences at the bargaining table in a way that helps companies thrive and workers secure wages and benefits with which they can start a family.”
Employees with pension benefits will also see raises upon retirement, and those hired with 401(k) plans after 2007 will get large raises, Browning said. For the first time, the union will have the right to strike over the company’s plans to close factories, he said.
“That means they can’t continue to ravage our communities and close factories without consequences,” Browning said. “Together we made history.”
Ford was pleased with the agreement and said it would focus on restarting the massive Kentucky truck plant in Louisville and the Chicago assembly plant. The Louisville plant alone employs 8,700 people and produces highly profitable, heavy-duty F-Series pickups and large truck-based SUVs.
A total of 20,000 workers will return to work and deliver the company’s full range of vehicles to customers, Ford said.
Ford’s statement did not mention contract costs. Company executives said last week they were at the limit of their ability to pay and could still invest in new vehicles and the transition from combustion to electric vehicles. All three companies have said they don’t want to be burdened with high labor costs that could limit their ability to invest in future vehicles and potentially force them to raise prices.
“This agreement puts us on a new path to get things right at Ford, the Big Three and across the automotive industry. Together we are turning the tide for the working class in this country,” said Fain.
___
Associated Press writer Mike Householder contributed from Wayne, Michigan.