Ford's negotiations with the on-strike United Auto Workers (UAW) have seemingly hit the proverbial wall as of late, with the automaker noting that it has reached the limit of what it can offer the union at the moment. For now, the major barriers to a new contract are the UAW's desire to include future EV plants in that document, as well as achieving beefed-up retirement benefits. Regardless, the UAW opted not to expand its strike against Ford last week - though it did walk out of Stellantis' Sterling Heights Assembly Plant yesterday - but the automaker continues to lay off workers impacted by current closures. Now, the UAW has revealed what FoMoCo and its counterparts are currently offering it, giving us a better view of how these negotiations are proceeding.
Currently, all three automakers are offering a 23 percent pay increase over four and a half years, though it seems as if the union isn't done asking for more just yet. "At all three companies, as of this week, we have a 23 percent raise on the table," said UAW President Shawn Fain. "That's up from 20 percent just a few days ago, and up from 9 percent when they made their first offer. The companies kept saying they hit their limit, and then their limit went up. We think there's more ground to gain."
Ford has proposed eliminating wage tiers are its Rawsonville and Sterling plants, though the union is seeking to end them across the board. "At all three companies, we have killed massive wage tiers," Fain said. "This is a major win and has been a major priority. We believe in equal pay for equal work. At Stellantis, Mopar workers will make production wages. At GM, CCA and GMCH workers will make production wages. At Ford, Sterling Axle and Rawsonville workers will make production wages. This represents huge raises for those members and will end the toxic wage tier divide among these members."
In terms of the time it takes UAW workers to reach the top tier of wages, Ford and GM are proposing three years and Stellantis four, though the union wants these reduced to just 90 days. "We started these negotiations with a ridiculous eight-year progression, Fain said. "At Ford, we got it down to a three-year progression, where it was in the mid-1990s. At Stellantis, they're still stuck on a four-year progression. At GM, they want to two-tier the progression, with three years for all current employees, and four years for future hires. Obviously, that is not going to fly. If Ford can do it, so can GM and Stellantis, and we are not adding a new tier."
Ford is proposing that a cost of living increase be restored to the same level it was at in 2009, before it was eliminated. "At Ford, we have won the COLA formula back to where it was in 2009 - something we were told was impossible," Fain said. "At GM, we're really close, with some tweaks left to be made. At Stellantis, we've still got a deficient COLA formula on the table, that doesn't kick-in for the first year."
In terms of profit sharing, Ford wants to move to total company profits for its formula, which meets the union's ask. "At all three companies, we've been able to beat back concessionary profit-sharing proposals," Fain said. "At Ford, we've actually enhanced the formula, and temporary workers with 90 days of service will now be eligible. At GM, we've maintained profit sharing, but added eligibility for temporary workers with 1,000 hours on the job. At Stellantis, we've maintained, but haven't yet won eligibility for temporary workers."
Ford has proposed making its current temp workers permanent within 90 days, along with giving them a pay boost. "We're fighting to end the abuse of so-called temporary workers who make lower wages, have fewer rights, and little job security," Fain said. "At Ford, we've raised the temp wage to $21 an hour, and won conversion of all current temps with 90 days of service. At GM, we’ve also hit $21 an hour for temps, with all the temps who have a year in getting immediately converted to full time. At Stellantis, the temp wage is still at $20 an hour, and we’re going to convert thousands of temps. At all three, we're still negotiating a pathway for future temps to get converted to end the abuse of these members. We're fighting hard to win language across the Big Three that will make sure that temporary work is just that - temporary."
Ford is offering to let UAW workers strike over plant closures, which is not something GM is keen to do "One of our biggest proposals on job security has been the right to strike over plant closures," Fain said. "They can't keep closing plants without any consequences. At Ford and Stellantis, we've won that right. We will keep our jobs secure with the most powerful weapon we have, the strike threat. At GM, the company still won’t grant it."
In terms of work life balance, all three automakers are willing to provide more time off, too. "At all three companies, we've won an additional holiday, Juneteenth, and two weeks of paid parental leave, a first for our members at the Big Three."
Finally, we have the topic of retirement, with all three companies proposing similar changes. "We know we need to fix our broken retirement system at the Big Three," Fain said. "All three companies are now offering a $3 increase to the pension multiplier, and boosting the 401k, though GM lags behind. Ford and Stellantis are offering a 9.5 percent employer contribution to the 401k, and GM is offering just 8 percent. For current retirees, Ford is offering a $250 annual lump sum payment, and GM just a one-time $1,000 lump sum. Stellantis isn't offering anything on that front."
We'll have more on the UAW strike soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-UAW news, UAW news, and 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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Putting The Blue Oval in serious contention for the win.
The same part present in certain models from the factory.
The elimination of the tax credit won't help.
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Ford’s next offer to UAW should be the exit.
These employees just may be going sown the road kicking their lunchboxes. Be careful what you ask for!
Pay workers who Are Your Business, the Wages they need and deserve. The CEOs, CFOs, and upper Management Team are the only ones reaping the rewards of the workers hard work. Time to recognize who a company really is...Not just the figureheads at the top !
Its a lot more difficult to run a company successfully than it is to do a basically entry level job. CEOs are not just figureheads.
Bootlick much?
Right to strike over plant closures? No way. The UAW has no right to tell the automakers they cannot close a plant. If financial conditions or product mix makes a plant obsolete, that's just unfortunately how it goes. Plants cannot stay open forever, and it's strictly a business decision that Ford (or GM or Stellantis) needs to make without the UAW intervening.
Wrong!!! Do not close plants to send work out of country!
They're all rolling over and caving. First, I said I wouldn't pay ridiculous prices due to the "supplies shortage", then the "EV Pivot" and now an absurdly generous contract. Bye, bye Ford if need be.
Well if you're say bye to Ford, then your saying bye to GM and Chrysler because they will all end up with about the same contract, that's the UAW way.
The bigger question is, 'when is enough...enough?'
Increases in every aspect. A UAW win
Most important is increase far and above the rate of inflation PLUS COLA, so take home pay increase is real, not just keeping pace.
UAW, give it a rest. It's only a 4 year contract. You can break their balls again 4 years from now!
When you negotiate it is supposed to be a win-win scenario, what exactly is the UAW giving up?
Listen Bob. Go back to 2007 and how much did you make? Either hourly of salary. I bet it quite a bit more now. Right? Well I make about $4 more an hour today than I did in 2007. Not that much more is it. Well Bob do you see now what we gave up? We the UAW aren't giving up anything this time, we are getting back some of what we lost. So know facts before you make stupid comments.
Hopefully they wont replace you with a robot. A Tesla robot maybe?
The UAW workers already gave up a lot. Stagnant Pay, as costs for everything rise, no respect for building the vehicles that make the Company. Even Henry Ford, as ruthless as he was, recognized the workers need to make enough to buy the vehicles they were making , and have time off enough to enjoy the money they made.
Membership gave up alot back in 2008 to help keep these companies afloat with the promise of it all coming back after the recession was over. Not one thing did the companies give back to the membership. They lied so now we ask for it back after record profits yr after yr. Were not asking for anything more then what was promised to us 15yrs ago.
I'm in the printing business, and I remember when all the inks where made here good times, Now 89% comes from over seas. It is terrible but big corporations are moving out, we need to support our companies and keep them here for us, I have an order for the Maverick that truck is going to be made in Mexico, why not here! as every F-150
If you want to support U.S. companies then you should have bought that F150 Instead.
Is not going to be made in the US because us have a bunch of weed heads and crack heads making the cars
There should be a clause in there that QUALITY has to improve to a certain level to make all these demands happen.
Sure! That clause can be made possible if Ford makes it's vendors manufacture quality parts. These parts are only assembled by UAW employees and manufactured by non-union employees. Bring back manufacturing into the hands of a union employee so that there is more control over quality. UAW employees have always strived to build quality vehicles, but management is only concerned with numbers even if there is a quality issue, so there is no stopping the line for a quality issue, if you do, you get threatened with discipline.
To many ads
UAW keep pushing, prices go up on vehicles, people can't afford pricing on vehicles, don't sell vehicles, companies fold up. Why can't you people at the Big 3 and the UAW we are heading into a recession. Life is tough all over this country. 70,000.00 for a vehicle is already ridiculous. Think of The Everyday WORKING MAN
Currently w/o a new contract, employee costs are 6% of the cost of the vehicle. Blame the high price on the companies goal to make the shareholders richer.
Take more of Ford out show them you are willing to go further.
In the twelve months ending June 30th 2023 The Ford Motor Co. Made a gross profit of 25.5 billion dollars, if they would have given each of there 57,000 hourly workers an $80,000.00 a year raise the still would have made a profit of 21.7 billion dollars.