A tentative agreement has been reached between Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union to terminate the six-week strike.
The deal would be the first resolution to the 45,000 workers’ strikes against Ford, GM, and Stellantis, the company that owns Chrysler.
Leaders and Members of the Union Must Still Approve the Agreement.
The new four-and-a-half-year contract would set the tone for negotiations at GM and Stellantis if it is approved by Ford employees.
Ford complied with our request to “pony up,” according to UAW President Shawn Fain.
According to Mr. Fain, the agreement included a wage increase of 25% for the duration of the contract, with pay increases of more than 150% for the lowest-paid temporary workers.
He added that the union has acquired the right to go on strike against Ford over planned factory closures.
In a statement, Jim Farley, the CEO and president of Ford, stated: “We are focused on calling 20,000 Ford employees back to work, restarting the Kentucky Truck Plant, Michigan Assembly Plant, and Chicago Assembly Plant, and shipping our full line-up to our customers again.”
US President Joe Biden declared his approval of the provisional agreement.
“[It] provides a record raise to auto workers who have sacrificed so much to ensure our iconic Big Three companies can still lead the world in quality and innovation,” Biden stated.
In the 88-year history of the UAW, this strike—which began on September 15—is the first to take aim at all three automakers simultaneously.
The union entered negotiations expecting a pay increase of about 40% over a four-year period. Other demands were to stop paying new hires less and provide them with less benefits.
The businesses had insisted that the union’s demands would negatively impact their long-term capacity to make investments. They responded by offering several other concessions along with a wage raise of about 20%.
By staging strikes at the auto industry’s most lucrative facilities, the UAW applied pressure to the major players in the sector.
Numerous locations were targeted by UAW members’ walkouts, including the GM assembly plant in Arlington, Texas; Ford’s heavy-duty truck facility in Kentucky; and Stellantis’ Ram pickup plant located in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
At Gm and Stellantis, the Union is Continuing on Strike.
GM and Stellantis stated that they were pursuing tentative deals with the union following the news of the tentative agreement between Ford and the UAW.
According to research firm the Anderson Economic Group, the strike’s estimated overall economic losses had hit $9.3 billion (£7.7 billion) earlier this week.
