Mixed votes cast doubt on fate of Ford contract

[rickaren]

Mixed votes cast doubt on fate of Ford contract

Posted Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009, 2:35 pm in Employee News

With a majority of workers at three UAW locals now opposing a modified cost-saving labor contract with Ford Motor Co.—and just two locals voting to support the deal—the deal faces an uncertain fate, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Final ratification is based on a simple majority of the total votes cast by two separate classes: production workers and skilled-trades workers, the paper said. Not all UAW locals that have completed voting have divulged precise tallies, and UAW officials in Detroit have declined to provide details. But so far, those protesting the deal have had some large wins, the Free Press said.

That includes Sunday’s overwhelming opposition to the deal in Kansas City, Mo., where members of Local 249 voted 92 percent against the changes, the paper reported. Meanwhile, workers represented by UAW Local 182 at Ford’s Livonia Transmission Plant and by UAW Local 845 at a plant in Plymouth have voted against the contract, the story said.

So far, workers represented by UAW Local 900 in Wayne, where the Ford Focus is built, and workers represented by UAW Local 1250 in Brook Park, Ohio, have voted in favor of the deal, the article said.

The UAW represents 41,000 workers at Ford, and UAW locals representing more than 7,000, or about 17 percent, of the workers have now concluded their vote, the paper said. Ford, the only Detroit automaker to decline emergency taxpayer assistance during the recession, has had difficulty convincing UAW members it needs the same contract terms that the UAW granted to GM and Chrysler on the eve of their bankruptcies, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)

[rickaren]

Bucking trend, 2 UAW locals OK Ford contract

Posted Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009, 3:41 pm in Employee News

UAW workers at a steering plant in Indianapolis and an assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn., have voted in favor of cost-saving contract changes with Ford Motor Co, bucking a trend of opposition to the deal at other Ford plants across the nation, the Detroit Free Press reported.

At UAW Local 1111 in Indianapolis, 261 Ford workers, or 62.1 percent of those who voted Tuesday, voted in favor of the agreement, said Dan Huddleston, president and chairman of the unit told the paper. Meanwhile, 74 percent of workers who voted at UAW Local 879, which represents about 758 workers in the Twin Cities, voted in favor of the proposed contract, according to a source close to the process who wished to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak until the process is over, the Free Press said.

Until today, a majority of workers at just two other UAW local units — UAW Local 900 in Wayne and UAW Local 1250 in Brook Park, Ohio — was known to have voted for the deal while a majority of workers at six UAW Locals had voted against it, the paper said. Votes in opposition included a stunning 92 percent rejection a UAW Local 249 in Claycomo, Mo., which represents 3,737 workers at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)