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The tentative agreement, if approved by a majority of Ford’s UAW workers, will end a six-week strike that has halted work at Ford factories in Wayne, Mich., Chicago and Louisville, Ken. The preliminary deal increases pressure on General Motors and Stellantis, which still face strikes at dozens of factories and warehouses, to reach agreements with similar terms.
The deal would include the biggest contract wins the UAW has secured in years, including a 25 percent wage increase over the life of the contract, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. The Associated Press earlier reported the parties were close to a deal.
In addition to the wage increase, the cost-of-living adjustments to wages that Ford has agreed to make will boost the total wage increase to roughly 30 percent over the life of the contract, the person said. Ford and UAW officials didn’t immediately provide comment.
The UAW strike is the union’s first against all of Detroit’s Big Three automakers at the same time. For Ford, it is the first national strike the company has faced since 1979.
The contract negotiations have been highly acrimonious, with UAW President Shawn Fain frequently lashing out against “corporate greed” and lucrative executive compensation. The automakers have at times accused Fain of grandstanding for the cameras instead of engaging in real negotiations.
The tentative deal at Ford arrives during a period of heightened workplace activism across the country.
Fueled by a tight labor market and a resurgent enthusiasm for unions, recent strikes and strike threats have been reaping big results for workers.
UPS employees who threatened a nationwide shutdown won their strongest contract in decades in July, which included abolishing a second tier of workers and securing 48 percent raises for part-time workers over five years.
The UAW began its strike in a targeted fashion on Sept 15, initially shutting down just one factory at each company. It broadened the work stoppage over time to include dozens of auto-parts warehouses and several additional factories, including vital plants that make some of the companies’ most profitable pickup trucks and SUVs.
The strike has rattled the Biden administration, which worried about a prolonged shutdown of a sector that contributes 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. It put President Biden in a tough spot, attempting to balance the interests of the labor movement — to which he has long pledged loyalty — with those of U.S. automakers that have warned they won’t remain competitive with significantly higher labor costs.
The strike has had ripple effects beyond the picket lines. The Big Three have temporarily laid off thousands of non-striking workers whose factories depend on striking facilities. Suppliers to the auto industry have also laid off thousands as their orders dry up.
As it headed into negotiations this summer, the UAW made its biggest demands in decades, including a 40 percent wage hike over four years, the restoration of defined-benefit pensions for all workers, and a 32-hour work week. Some of those demands were aimed at restoring benefits that the UAW lost around the time of the Great Recession in 2008, when the automakers were struggling to survive.
GM and Stellantis have offered raises of around 23 percent over four years and other perks that they say constitute their best offers to the union in decades.
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