Ford, UAW reach tentative contract deal
Sunday, 4 November 2007
DETROIT, Nov 3 (AP): The United Auto Workers (UAW) union said early Saturday it reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with Ford Motor Co, avoiding even the threat of a strike against the struggling automaker.
The deal, reached around 3:20am, must be ratified by the UAW's approximately 60,000 members at Ford. If approved, it would bring a close to historic negotiations that have yielded agreements designed to return the struggling US-based automakers to profitability.
Details of the Ford agreement were not immediately released, but the deal likely will be close to what was negotiated with General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC.
Those pacts-which were reached after short strikes against the automakers-include a union-run trust that would take over the companies' retiree health care obligations, a lower-tier wage scale for some workers and some job security pledges.
The Ford deal came after a bargaining session that lasted more than 41 hours inside automaker's world headquarters building in Dearborn.
"Our bargaining committee came through for our active and retired members," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement.
The deal encourages Ford to invest in its products while addressing the economic needs of union members, Gettelfinger's statement said.
"We face enormous challenges-and we also have enormous potential," UAW Vice President Bob King said in the statement. King, the chief union negotiator with Ford, said the union's goals were to win new product and investment from the company, get job security and protect seniority rights.
"We made progress in all these areas," he said.
People who had been briefed on the bargaining late Friday said that throughout the lengthy negotiating session, bargainers were weighing the UAW's demand for promises that new vehicles will be built at US factories against the company's desire to further downsize its manufacturing capacity to match lower demand for its products.
The people did not want to be identified because the talks are private.
One of the people said Ford wanted to reduce its US hourly work force by another 13,000 employees through additional buyout and early retirement programmes. The union wanted the company to spare from closure some of the six factories that it intends to shutter, both people said.
The deal, reached around 3:20am, must be ratified by the UAW's approximately 60,000 members at Ford. If approved, it would bring a close to historic negotiations that have yielded agreements designed to return the struggling US-based automakers to profitability.
Details of the Ford agreement were not immediately released, but the deal likely will be close to what was negotiated with General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC.
Those pacts-which were reached after short strikes against the automakers-include a union-run trust that would take over the companies' retiree health care obligations, a lower-tier wage scale for some workers and some job security pledges.
The Ford deal came after a bargaining session that lasted more than 41 hours inside automaker's world headquarters building in Dearborn.
"Our bargaining committee came through for our active and retired members," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement.
The deal encourages Ford to invest in its products while addressing the economic needs of union members, Gettelfinger's statement said.
"We face enormous challenges-and we also have enormous potential," UAW Vice President Bob King said in the statement. King, the chief union negotiator with Ford, said the union's goals were to win new product and investment from the company, get job security and protect seniority rights.
"We made progress in all these areas," he said.
People who had been briefed on the bargaining late Friday said that throughout the lengthy negotiating session, bargainers were weighing the UAW's demand for promises that new vehicles will be built at US factories against the company's desire to further downsize its manufacturing capacity to match lower demand for its products.
The people did not want to be identified because the talks are private.
One of the people said Ford wanted to reduce its US hourly work force by another 13,000 employees through additional buyout and early retirement programmes. The union wanted the company to spare from closure some of the six factories that it intends to shutter, both people said.