DETROIT, Mich.—The United Auto Workers’ National Ford Council voted Nov. 1 to recommend that members ratify the tentative agreement the union reached with Ford Motor Co. Oct. 30. Like the UAW’s new contract with General Motors, the four-year deal would give workers 3% raises in its second and fourth years, with lump-sum bonuses of 4% of their salaries in the other two years; enable second-tier workers to reach their top pay rate sooner; and make temporary workers permanent once they have enough time on the job. But it would also close the Romeo Engine Plant north of Detroit, forcing its 600 UAW workers to relocate. The union successfully turned back Ford’s desire to increase workers’ health-care costs, which Todd Dunn, president of Local 862 in Louisville, Kentucky, called “a big relief.” Randy Lashbrook, UAW chair at the Romeo plant, voted against ratification. “With the billions of dollars that Ford Motor Company makes, there should not be one plant in the United States closing,” he told the Detroit Free Press. But otherwise, he said, “there are a lot of gains.” Ford’s 55,000 union workers will begin the ratification process Nov. 4, with all locals’ votes due Nov. 15. Read more
