In the collective bargaining dispute in the US auto industry, after almost six weeks of strikes, a first agreement has been reached. ford and the UAW union announced an agreement on Thursday night – which, however, still has to be approved by union members.
The contract has a term of 4.5 years and provides for record wage increases, said UAW President Shawn Fain (54). The UAW reached a historic agreement with Ford that would provide a 25 percent wage increase over the life of the contract. It is a bigger jump than in all previous collective bargaining rounds in the past 22 years.
Ford workers received an immediate 11 percent wage increase. Taking compound interest and living costs into account, this would result in a wage increase of around 33 percent to over $40 per hour over the term of the contract.
“We told Ford to pay and they did,” Fain said in a video post on Facebook. The work stoppages at Ford were successful.
The agreement, which still needs to be approved by union leadership and members, is the first since strikes by 45,000 union members at Ford began, General Motors and the Chrysler mother Stellantis on September 15th.
The UAW called on Ford workers to return to work. This should also put pressure on General Motors and the Peugeot-Group Stellantis, which in the USA includes Chrysler, among others.
US President Joe Biden, who was also among the strikers, welcomed the agreement.
Strikes have cost the auto industry $9.3 billion so far
Economic losses from the UAW strike total $9.3 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group estimates.
The UAW’s original demand was 40 percent – because the income of the top management of the large car companies had grown by this amount. Before the strike began, car manufacturers were ready for increases of up to 20 percent over a period of four and a half years.
The union decided to gradually expand the strikes to other plants. This meant that the companies did not know which of their factories might be affected next.