UAW members at Ford and Stellantis approve contract

By Chris Isidore, CNN

New York (CNN) — Members of the United Auto Workers union at Ford and Stellantis have ratified their labor deals and by a larger margin of approval than members at General Motors, ending any chance that the auto strikes could resume due to rank-and-file opposition to the deals.

The final votes, posted Saturday on the UAW ratification vote tracker, showed 69% of membership at each of the companies voting for the deal over the course of the two-week ratification process. The votes from GM, which were posted Thursday, showed that only 55% of members voted in favor of a similar deal to the ones reached by Ford and Stellantis.

Strikers at all Ford, Stellantis and GM plants and facilities had already returned to work weeks ago, when their respective tentative agreements on a new contract were reached.

Despite the approval for the deals at the three companies, there has been notable opposition among some of the membership. The UAW reports that workers at more than a dozen GM factories and facilities voted against the deal. Opposition was more scattered at Ford and Stellantis but it included workers at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, its largest factory, while three facilities at Stellantis voted no, including the Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, which had been one of the first factories to go on strike on September 15.

Support for the three deals was weaker than other recent high-profile labor contracts. In August, 86% of Teamsters voted for a deal with UPS that covered 340,000 hourly workers there. And earlier this month, 98.5% of union members at Kaiser Permanente voted in favor a deal covering 85,000 members.

Still, the votes at America’s three unionized automakers are enough to end any chance of more strikes against the Detroit automakers. If members at any of the companies had voted no, the union might have sent workers at that automaker back to the picket line while it tried to negotiate a better deal.

Recent labor history includes numerous examples of membership voting down deals reached by their unions’ negotiators, with the unions subsequently going on strike. Most recently, nearly 4,000 members at Mack Trucks rejected a deal similiar to the three auto deals on October 8, and had been on strike through Wednesday.

But when Mack Trucks indicated it would not raise the basic terms of the deal that was rejected, members voted again on November 15 for a very similar contract with changes only to local provisions of the deal, not the national contract. That passed Wednesday with 93% support, ending that strike.

The three deals, which cover a total of 145,000 UAW members, were reached after the union simultaneously went on strike at all three companies on September 15 in what would be the longest auto strike in this century.

But the union did not strike all of the factories and facilities, starting instead with 12,700 members on strike at one assembly plant at each company. It then expanded the scope of the strike six times during the subsequent seven weeks to increase pressure on the companies. Eventually, nearly 50,000 union members were on strike at one time or another during the work stoppage.

Under terms of the deals matched at every company, workers get an immediate raise of at least 11%. The deal also guarantees additional raises, which together with a return of a cost-of-living adjustment could raise wages more than 30% over the life of the deal that runs through 2028. There were also improvements in retirement benefits and job security provisions.

UAW President Shawn Fain had told members that the tentative agreements with all three unionized automakers represented record deals and wins for the union. He said that the union had won every last penny the companies were willing to pay. He also said the final decision on the deals was up to membership.

But the union failed to reach all of its demands, which included a restoration of health care coverage for retirees, as well as a return of traditional pension plans for those hired since 2007, who now only have a 401(k) plan that doesn’t have a promised monthly payout.

Despite Fain talking up the deals on Facebook Live, many members who logged into those talks posted criticism of the tentative agreements. Some just urged other members to vote no, without providing a reason for their opposition.

Others said the union could achieve better deals if members voted no, with some having complained that too many of the gains would go to more recently hired workers, such as temporary workers who will now be made permanent employees, and that there were not enough gains for more senior workers.

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This article has been updated with additional information.