On Friday, the early vote was going
against ratification of the tentative deal between the UAW and Ford. But, as some expert observers predicted, it turned around and the UAW has announced that workers have
voted to ratify:
U.A.W. members at Ford shifted from voting 53 percent against the contract last Friday to 63.2 percent in favor as of Tuesday morning. Ford is offering 12,000 new jobs, $6.2 billion in factory upgrades and bonus and profit-sharing payments per worker this year that total as much as $10,000. A lack of a wage increase was responsible for much of the initial opposition.
While the lower-paid second-tier workers are getting a raise under this contract, the longtime higher-paid workers have not had a raise in seven years and many, reasonably enough, don't view the array of bonuses included in this contract as a valid substitute, especially when merit pay raises were restored to salaried workers last year and the company's CEO had total compensation of $26.5 million. But, at the urging of UAW leadership, which pointed not only to bonuses in the contract but to commitments by Ford to invest in U.S. manufacturing and jobs, ultimately the majority did vote in favor of the contract.