UAW Endorses Tentative Deal with Ford

Facts

• The United Auto Workers (UAW) union on Sunday endorsed the tentative agreement reached last week with Ford Motor Co. and urged 57K union-represented workers to approve the 4.5-year contract.¹
• The terms of the agreement include a 25% general wage increase and the right to unionize workers at electric vehicle and battery plants.²
• UAW local leaders are expected to hold regional meetings with rank-and-file members to discuss the proposed contract and take a vote on whether or not to ratify the deal.³
• Further, the union will likely start its internal ratification process on Nov. 2 for a similar tentative deal with Stellantis, announced on Saturday.⁴
• Meanwhile, negotiations between UAW president Shawn Fain and General Motors CEO Mary Barra reportedly continued on Sunday night.⁵
• This comes as nearly 4K workers walked out of General Motors' Tennessee plant — the automaker's largest plant in North America — raising the number of GM union workers on strike to over 18K.⁶

Sources: ¹Detroit Free Press, ²Forbes, ³CBS, ⁴FOX News, ⁵Reuters and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by Labor Notes. The UAW has entered a new era of ambitious demands and a bold strategy of playing automakers against each other. leading to the recent successes for workers. As Ford and Stellantis have caved and agreed to substantial contract gains, General Motors will likely speed up bargaining now that its main plants are on strike.
• Right narrative, as provided by The Hill. It's worrisome that a government-sanctioned monopoly has been able to openly coerce companies in labor negotiations while failing to show even a shred of respect for the needs of the Big Three automakers to remain competitive. In fact, many of the so-called union 'successes' achieved through these deals are the precise issues that caused significant trouble for the automobile industry in 2008.

Predictions