Photos: YouTube Screenshots
DETROIT—United Auto Workers bargainers with Ford reached a tentative agreement with the Detroit Three auto firm on Oct. 25, union President Shawn Fain and Chuck Browning, its vice-president for Ford, announced on a video the union posted late Wednesday evening. The deal features big raises and company givebacks.
“Today we announce a major victory in our Stand Up strike,” a smiling Fain said, referring to the union’s its strategy of leaving the Detroit Three uncertain about which key plant the union strikers might shut next. The strike began at midnight Sept. 14-15, at three big plants, one per car company. It’s now up beyond 40 plants.
This tentative pact gives Ford workers a 25% raise over its 4-1/2 years, larger than the combined raises of 23% cumulatively over 2001-22, Browning said. And there’s an immediate 11% ratification bonus on top of the pay hike, along with major company givebacks, notably restoration of cost of living adjustments (COLAs), which the Detroit Three abolished in 2009.
“Every extra $100 million we took out of the company” over the life of the pact, “we took out because of you,” Fain declared. “We told Ford to pony up, and they did. They put 50% more on the table than they did when we began….
