UAW workers reject tentative labor agreement at Ford’s Claycomo plant

“This agreement does not have everything that members had hoped for but it is a fair agreement with raises for everyone and has the path to full pay for entry level members”, Jeff Wright, president of UAW Local 249 in Kansas City told workers in a Facebook message before they voted.

Voting on the tentative deal is continuing at UAW locals at other Ford facilities.

The production workers have voted to ratify the tentative agreement. But according to reports in the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, close to a third of eligible workers have voted.

But it’s not a done deal.

About 54 percent of the production workers at the Kansas City Assembly Plant voted against the national contract Sunday.

The Kansas City vote was a setback in a race that has so far seen a majority of Ford workers that have had the chance to vote support the deal. About 7,500 people work at the plant. Workers at the Sterling Axle and Rawsonville plants in MI have also rejected the deal.

Meanwhile, the UAW is still trying to decide what to do about its agreement with General Motors. About 51 percent of production workers and 55 percent of skilled trades workers voted in favor of the deal, according to the union.

Ford’s deal, which was completed after GM workers had finished voting, appears to have anticipated the objections raised by GM’s skilled tradespeople.

It’s not clear why the UAW local at Kansas City voted against the deal.

The proposed contract also included a $200-million investment at the Kansas City plant to keep making the F-150 pickup and the Transit commercial van, which is a new product for the plant.

What if workers reject the deal? .

The latest results Sunday night came from Local 2000, which represents roughly 1,450 workers at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant. After Fiat Chrysler workers rejected their first tentative agreement, the UAW and FCA were able to hammer out an improved deal that won workers’ approval. “Do you want to stop the consolidation of skilled trades, which threatens job security and safety?” noted one of the fliers circulated by the Autoworkers Caravan. It employs 4,100 UAW members and is Ford’s longest continually running factory in the world.

What do Ford investors need to do? . That would move the stock, and not in a good way.