Ford workers to vote soon on contract changes
Thursday, 26 February 2009
DETROIT, Michigan, Feb 25 (AFP): The United Auto Workers said Tuesday workers from the Ford Motor Co. will be the first to vote on a new round of contract concessions that could save the company more than 1.6 billion dollars in 2010.
The UAW Ford National Council voted unanimously to recommend the membership ratify proposed modifications to the 2007 UAW-Ford National Agreement, the union said in a statement.
"Everyone is going to go along with the concessions," predicted one former union official, after a meeting of the union's Ford National Council Tuesday.
The tentative deal, to be voted on by March 9, would allow Ford to fund up to 50 per cent of its outstanding obligations to a multibillion dollar retirees health care plan with stock instead of cash.
If approved by Ford's 42,000 workers across the United States, the deal could save the company Ford 1.6 billion in cash next year.
Under the terms of the 2007 agreement, Ford had been expected to transfer 3.2 billion into the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) in 2010.
The new deal would also eliminate two paid holidays, scrap two one-time productivity bonuses due next year, end the
quarterly cost-of-living wage adjustments and slap new limits on supplemental unemployment benefits that workers have been paid for half a century.
While Ford has not asked for government aid, it has used the deep recession in the global auto industry to seek concessions from the union.
The UAW also plans to offer similar terms to both General Motors and Chrysler LLC, sources indicated. Officials from
Chrysler and GM, which last week asked for more than 21.6 billion dollars in government loans to stave off bankruptcy, declined to comment on the Ford deal.
The UAW has always enjoyed better relations with Ford than with cash- strapped Chrysler and General Motors and the union is using the negotiations with Ford to shield itself from demands for more concessions from the other two automakers.
The UAW Ford National Council voted unanimously to recommend the membership ratify proposed modifications to the 2007 UAW-Ford National Agreement, the union said in a statement.
"Everyone is going to go along with the concessions," predicted one former union official, after a meeting of the union's Ford National Council Tuesday.
The tentative deal, to be voted on by March 9, would allow Ford to fund up to 50 per cent of its outstanding obligations to a multibillion dollar retirees health care plan with stock instead of cash.
If approved by Ford's 42,000 workers across the United States, the deal could save the company Ford 1.6 billion in cash next year.
Under the terms of the 2007 agreement, Ford had been expected to transfer 3.2 billion into the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) in 2010.
The new deal would also eliminate two paid holidays, scrap two one-time productivity bonuses due next year, end the
quarterly cost-of-living wage adjustments and slap new limits on supplemental unemployment benefits that workers have been paid for half a century.
While Ford has not asked for government aid, it has used the deep recession in the global auto industry to seek concessions from the union.
The UAW also plans to offer similar terms to both General Motors and Chrysler LLC, sources indicated. Officials from
Chrysler and GM, which last week asked for more than 21.6 billion dollars in government loans to stave off bankruptcy, declined to comment on the Ford deal.
The UAW has always enjoyed better relations with Ford than with cash- strapped Chrysler and General Motors and the union is using the negotiations with Ford to shield itself from demands for more concessions from the other two automakers.