http://nyti.ms/1kNBRvy
BUSINESS DAY
U.A.W. Vote at Ford and G.M. Ends
Painful Process for Big Three
By BILL VLASIC and MARY M. CHAPMAN NOV. 21, 2015
DETROIT — After five months of bargaining and divisive ratification votes, the United Automobile Workers on Friday completed new labor contracts covering more than 140,000 workers at the three largest American automakers. The new agreements, which will expire in four years, include raises and bonuses for all unionized workers. They also provide a path for newer employees to eventually achieve wage parity with veteran workers. But finalizing the agreements proved to be a painstaking process, because many workers opposed the terms negotiated by U.A.W. leaders with General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler.
The ratification process at Ford went down to the wire on Friday, when workers at a large factory complex in Michigan approved the deal and
sealed its passage.
The agreement was in danger of being rejected until votes were tallied at the company’s assembly and stamping plants in Dearborn, Mich.
stronger business in the years ahead,” John Fleming, Ford’s head of global manufacturing and labor affairs, said in a statement.
A version of this article appears in print on November 22, 2015, on page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: Union Vote at Ford and G.M. Ends Painful Process for Big Three .
