UAW leaders make push for Ford contract

And 78 percent of skilled tradesman at the plant voted against it. About 7,500 people work at the plant.

“Some of the legacy employees (long-term workers) also feel that a few of the concessions they made in previous contracts should be returned to them now”, Sample said.

Voting extends through Friday night, including at Local 600, which has 8,500 of Ford’s almost 53,000 UAW members. He said the workers have job titles, wages and experience that are unique to maintenance. “I don’t remember making that statement about replacements, but by law, if you do go out on an economic strike, they do have the right to do that”. The only class consciousness Settles & Co. have is that of upper middle class managers and aspiring investors who want to increase their share of the profits extracted out of the hides of autoworkers. “So you are negotiating everything all over again”.

“We’re optimistic”, Settles said. “It looks dark now, but it might be light in the morning”. Union members continued to picket outside the Kohler plant Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the union executive board is waiting for the results of a ratification vote among workers at the Ford Motor, as union members rejected one tentative agreement with FCA US.

Union members at the Cleveland Engine Ford Plant in Brook Park will vote all day until 6 p.m. The deal calls for MI Assembly to get a $700 million investment and two new products – identified by sources as a Ranger pickup and Bronco SUV – to replace the Focus and C-Max small cars that Ford plans to move out of the U.S.in 2018. Samples said a few believe the two-tiered wage system should have been phased out in four years rather than eight years.

But, Dziczek said, “They’re probably not going to get them back, whatever happens”. Of those who did vote, 52 percent rejected the deal, reports the Detroit Free Press. Officially, the UAW won’t say until all of the workers have voted.

“If Ford can put $9 billion in the US, it can put $9 billion in Mexico”, she said.

Up to 4,000 eligible employees would be offered a $60,000 early retirement incentive.

“It would be very hard to tell their unionized workers back in Germany – who also have a say in how the companies are run – that it’s very important to be non-union in the United States”, he said. A group of about 3,400 hourly workers at several GM parts plants with one to four years of seniority would be paid $16.25 to $19.86.

Numerous larger unions, including the workers at the Chicago and Kentucky plants, also are voting today on the the proposed contract worked out between Ford Motor Company and UAW national representatives.

“If we thought there was another dollar on the table, we would have got it the first time”, said Bernie Ricke, UAW Local 600 President, in discussing details of the contract during a Wednesday news conference. “And they don’t understand the process, so we try to do the best we possibly can to educate them on the process”.