US President Joe Biden hailed a “historic” agreement. After forty-one days of strike at American manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the UAW automobile union and Ford finally reached an “agreement in principle” on Wednesday.
“I applaud the UAW and Ford for coming to an agreement after difficult, good-faith negotiations,” Joe Biden said in a White House statement. The agreement includes a 25% increase in base salary and cost-of-living allowances, the UAW said. It must still be ratified by workers in a vote to take place in the coming weeks. Ford said he was “satisfied” with this result.
The “Big Three” targeted simultaneously
“We achieved things that no one thought possible,” said Shawn Fain, president of the UAW union. Since the start of the strike, Ford has put on the table 50% more than when we walked out. This agreement puts us on a new path to turn around the situation at Ford, among the “Big Three” [surnom donné aux trois constructeurs historiques], and throughout the automotive industry. »
This is the first time that the “Big Three” have been targeted at the same time. The strike, linked to the development of the next collective agreements, mobilized nearly 45,000 employees in total on Tuesday, out of the 146,000 registered at the UAW. “We are focused on restarting the Kentucky Pickup Plant, the Michigan Assembly Plant and the Chicago Assembly Plant, getting 20,000 Ford employees back to work and delivering our full range to our customers,” said Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, quoted in his group’s press release.
A “strategic decision”
After an agreement in principle, unions sometimes do not end the strike until it has been ratified by the members. But the UAW announced that Ford workers would return to their jobs to put pressure on General Motors (GM) and Stellantis. “This is a strategic decision aimed at obtaining the best possible agreement,” said Chuck Browning, vice president of the UAW. “The last thing GM and Stellantis want is for Ford to return to full production capacity while they waste time.”
Again on Tuesday, the UAW called on its 5,000 members working at the GM plant in Arlington (Texas) to also strike, after the manufacturer published quarterly results better than expectations. “Another record quarter, another record year. As we have been saying for months: record profits mean record contracts,” commented Shawn Fain. The tentative contract negotiated with Ford calls for a wage increase slightly lower than the 40 percent that Shawn Fain demanded when the UAW launched the strike on September 15, but it is significantly higher than the 9 percent initially proposed by Ford in August.