A deal was reached in the auto strike by UAW and Ford
Work Stoppages and EV Jobs: Negotiating a Proposed Agreement between the United Auto Workers and the Ford Motor Coalescence Association
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union and Ford have reached a tentative agreement to end the union’s six-week strike against the automaker. Last month, workers at Ford, GM, and Stellantis factories walked off the job in targeted work stoppages timed just as the large automakers shift to producing more electric vehicles than ever before.
According to preliminary reports, Ford agreed to a 25 percent increase in wages, plus cost of living increases, that will bump the pay increase over 30 percent to over $40 an hour. The union has to approve the deal.
Chuck Browning, vice president of the union, said in a video that there is more value for their members in each individual year of the agreement. “This deal puts more money on the table than the 2019 agreement four times over.”
Now that the deal has been struck, the company wants to restart plants in Kentucky, Michigan, and Chicago and call all of its 20,000 employees back to work.
Like other automakers, Ford is spending tens of billions of dollars on the EV transition, including the construction of four new EV battery plants in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Michigan. Three of the four factories are joint ventures with a Chinese battery company.
The Work-Life Balance Agreement at GM, Stellantis and GM: A Signature of Collective Bargaining and the UAW Expansion
Included as well in the tentative deal is a three-year progression for full-time employees to the top wage, improvement to retirement benefits, and the right to strike over plant closures, which would mark a first for the union.
The deal is likely to ramp up pressure on GM and Stellantis to also reach tentative deals after the UAW this week expanded its strike at the largest plants of each of the automakers, where many of their bestselling trucks and SUVs are built.
The strike is thought to have led to the rehiring of more than 3000 workers who were laid off by Ford.
“It’s showing how collective bargaining works by providing workers a seat at the table and the opportunity to improve their lives while contributing fully to their employer’s success,” Biden said in a statement.
