Ford, UAW reach 'historic' contract deal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Ford Motor Co. and the United Autoworkers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract about six weeks after the union put the company and its Detroit competitors on strike.

The proposed contract, which the UAW called “historic,” immediately ends a two-week-old strike at Kentucky Truck Plant, Ford’s profit juggernaut in Louisville. The union is also calling striking members back to the job at Ford plants in Michigan and Illinois.

While the union didn't get everything it wanted, such as a return to traditional pensions or a four-day workweek, the agreement offers large wage increases, bumps in retirement contributions and the restoration of inflation-protected pay rates, UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video Wednesday evening.

He added that Ford put 50% more money on the table than it did before the strike started on Sept. 15.

“We told Ford to pony up, and they did,” Fain said. “We won things no one thought possible.” 

Ford confirmed the deal and said it looks forward to getting workers at the three striking assembly plants back on the job.

The Ford deal, which must be ratified by Ford’s roughly 57,000 UAW members in a vote, could set the pattern for agreements with rival automakers General Motors and Stellantis. The union said workers returning to work will put pressure on GM and Stellantis to bargain.

Pay hikes, other increases

UAW Vice President Chuck Browning, the chief negotiator with Ford, said workers will get a 25% general wage increase over the four years of the deal, plus cost of living raises that will put the pay increase over 30%, to above $40 per hour. 

Included within that estimate is an 11% increase that takes effect as soon as the contract is ratified.

Previously Ford, Stellantis and General Motors had all offered 23% pay increases over the four years.

The projected $40-plus hourly wage, known as the "top rate," is for UAW members who complete a years-long, grow-in period. The so-called "progression" from entry-level pay to the top wage will be shortened to three years, from the current eight years. 

Browning added that the starting wage for fulltime, non-temporary employees would rise by 68%. That would imply a new starting wage of about $30 an hour, according to WDRB's analysis, though the union wasn't immediately available to confirm the figure.

In the lead up to the talks, Fain often mentioned restoring traditional defined-benefit pensions and retiree health coverage for all workers as goals.

In the video, Fain and Browning mentioned neither, though they said workers with 401(k)-style retirement plans will get more from the company. Fain last week disclosed that Ford was willing to bump its 401(k) contributions from the current 6.4% of wages to 9.5%.

As for retirees, Browning mentioned "annual bonuses" but did not elaborate.

The next procedural move is for the UAW National Ford Council, a group of local union representatives, to vote on Sunday whether to send the agreement to workers. Assuming the council’s approval, the UAW plans a livestream Sunday evening to share more details publicly.

After that, locals around the country will hold meetings with members to take questions about the deal.

KTP strike upped pressure

The deal comes about two weeks after the UAW significantly escalated the strike by taking out Kentucky Truck Plant, Ford’s largest factory making its most profitable vehicles: F- Series Super Duty pickups and the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.

The Kentucky Truck strike put about 8,700 hourly workers on the picket line and turned off a spigot of about $25 billion in annual revenue for the company.

The strike began Sept. 15 with only three plants but has expanded about a every week since.

Under the leadership of Fain, a reformer who took over the union in March, the UAW departed from traditional approach of choosing only one of the Detroit Three automakers to negotiate with and possibly strike. Instead, the union decided to negotiate simultaneously with all three.

Fain also pioneered what he calls the “Stand Up Strike,” an incremental approach in which some plants are taken offline and others remain running.

About 46,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 auto workers were on the picket line as of Wednesday, while thousands more were laid off because of the labor action.

On Monday, the union added the Stellantis equivalent of Kentucky Truck — a Michigan factory that makes Ram 1500 trucks. A day later, it added General Motors’ factory in Arlington, Texas, that makes profitable SUVs.

In a livestream on Friday, Fain acknowledged that some UAW members were agitating for resolution to the conflict and unsure if the union had much more to gain by continuing to hold out. Fain assured members, “There is more to be won.”

On the picket line in Louisville on Wednesday — before news of an imminent deal — workers said they were willing to wait as long as UAW leaders asked.

Justin Mounts, a truck plant worker since 2016, finally reached the UAW veteran wage of about $32 an hour in September after slogging through the eight-year grow-in period for new hires known as the “wage progression.”

Mounts said the milestone was welcome, but inflation has eroded the gains. He has a daughter in a Christian school and a son in daycare.

Mounts joined Ford nearly a decade after the UAW gave up traditional cost-of-living allowances that protected autoworker wages from inflation.

Now those “COLA” adjustments are coming back as they were before the 2009 concession to alter them, Browning said in the video.

“I’m still surprised we’re gonna get that back,” Mounts said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.