UAW workers at Ford and Stellantis ratify new labor contracts

Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have voted to ratify record-setting tentative labor contracts reached with Ford and Stellantis, according to the union’s vote tracking website.

The new labor contract had the support of about 68% of UAW workers at Ford and nearly 70% of UAW workers at Stellantis — the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram — as of Friday morning. Ratification of the deal led by a margin of over 12,000 votes at Ford and more than 9,000 at Stellantis, with just a few small locals yet to vote or report their results to the UAW.

The votes, which officially close at Ford on Friday and at Stellantis on Tuesday, will seal the ratification of the UAW’s contract that runs through April 2028 and come a day after workers at General Motors voted to ratify their contract. 

UAW RATIFIES LABOR DEAL WITH GENERAL MOTORS

The deals include a 25% increase in base wages and include cost-of-living adjustments that are estimated to cumulatively raise the top wage to over $42 an hour. It also includes a $5,000 bonus and an immediate pay raise of 11% upon ratification. 

Additionally, the contract boosts the wages of current temporary employees by 150% by 2028 and will make them permanent employees. It also reduces the time needed to get to the top pay rate from eight years to three years. 

Ratification of the deals comes roughly two weeks after the UAW reached tentative agreements with the Big Three automakers that enabled union autoworkers to return following a strike that was in its sixth week at the time the tentative deals were brokered. At its peak, about 45,000 autoworkers were participating in the "stand up strike" in which specific locals were tapped to go on strike.

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The Big Three automakers are turning their focus to evaluating the new financial reality that the new union contracts will bring as they forge ahead with electric vehicle pushes despite profitability challenges. 

Ford has estimated the new UAW contract will add about $850 to $900 in labor costs per vehicle.

STELLANTIS OFFERS BUYOUTS TO ROUGHLY HALF OF US SALARIED EMPLOYEES

Stellantis on Monday announced that it offered voluntary buyouts to about half of its salaried employees in the U.S. — roughly 6,400 of its 12,700 salaried workers who aren’t represented by a union — as part of its turn toward electric vehicles. The company has an additional 2,500 salaried union members who aren’t being offered the current buyout.

The UAW is turning its attention to a new organizing push at non-union auto factories like those run by Tesla, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Subaru. 

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Tesla has long touted its stock options as a reason for its workers to opt against unionization, while Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Subaru have moved to give workers pay raises and expanded benefits in the wake of the UAW’s bumper deals with the Big Three automakers.

FOX Business’ Philip Bodinet and Reuters contributed to this report.