UAW International acting president Rory Gamble speaks to the Detroit Free Press about issues with corruption, negotiations and future of UAW. Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press
Contract negotiators for Ford Motor Co. and the UAW rewrote a passage in their tentative agreement — while members are voting on the deal — that will increase pay for nearly 10,000 workers in an attempt to ensure ratification.
“It was a glitch,” said a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to discuss the matter. “This just shows the commitment of the company to work with the union to make sure that this agreement is what it was meant to be for all the employees.”
The adjustment could cost Ford an extra $15 million or so over the four-year contract, a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly told the Detroit Free Press.
Basically, the contract language change accommodates a calendar hiccup.
The revision allows the union to synchronize the worker pay raise schedule. In short, newer workers who have already received their annual pay raises would get retroactive pay to catch up to the new contract’s better pay scale that would take effect upon ratification Nov. 15.
According to a UAW memo distributed at Ford plants titled, “In-progression wage transition disparity issue has been fixed!” the change prevented the unintentional penalizing of workers with an employment anniversary date prior to scheduled ratification.
“In-progression” workers are those hired since 2007, and who earn less than so-called legacy workers.
Both Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker and UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg declined to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, Ford workers monitoring vote totals at local union halls say ratification is uncertain and a strike remains a possibility.
The voting of 55,000 Ford workers is scheduled to conclude with a three-day vote of 9,500 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville on Nov. 15. The plant builds the best-selling F-Series pickup trucks, the single biggest revenue generator for Ford.
‘Benefits workers’
Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in labor affairs and monitors UAW activity closely, said of the language change designed to benefit in-progression workers: “I think it is a rare, if not unprecedented, development. It corrects and obvious error and clearly benefits the workers.”
He said the rapid correction “reflects the relationship between the company and the union. It means that they discovered an error and rather than let it slide they sought to correct it.”
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University, said careful review of the tentative agreement is essential.
“It is taking a look at fine tuning the language of the agreement in which they fact check things for accuracy in order to determine if there are any possible mistakes. They go back and forth on this,” he said. “This really is an extension of the collective bargaining process. They’re doing due diligence. A willingness to correct mistakes will often depend on the relationship they have with each other.”
‘Left money’ on table
While improving the contract for in-progression workers is good because it gets those people to the top of the pay scale faster, debate over the tentative agreement is deep and complicated, said Kurt Kromm, an electrician at Kentucky Truck in Louisville and a member of UAW Local 862.
“This is going to be a close vote. It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “They’re already turned it down in Chicago. We’ve got a GM hand-me-down contract. They gave us less of a ratification bonus, less time off.”
Production workers in Chicago voted 1,497-913 to oppose the deal, according to figures released by UAW Local 551. Skilled trades workers voted to ratify. Voter turnout at the plant with about 5,700 UAW workers was abysmal, noted sources close to the negotiations.
Rory Gamble, the new acting president of the UAW who negotiated the Ford contract, has a “collaborative” negotiating style of “let’s all get along and work together,” Kromm said. “It’s not a negotiating style I like. I’d much rather (Terry) Dittes negotiate my contract. He got everything he could get (from GM). Contract negotiation is not about being the company’s friend.”
Kromm pointed out that, in 2015, then-UAW President Dennis Williams gave a hug to then-Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. “It was disgusting. You expect a working relationship but this is an adversarial relationship. What I want — a pay raise, good health insurance — is going to cost them money. We’ve got billion-dollar companies and CEOs making $10 million and $20 million.”
Negotiating the final part of the Ford deal in just three days left UAW members wondering, Kromm said. “That’s not working hard enough. I feel like he (Gamble) left money on the table.”
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Scott Houldieson, an electrician and former vice president of UAW Local 551 at Chicago Assembly, said long-term temporary workers should be able to participate in profit sharing, among other things. And when he first saw the update on the in-progression workers posted, it wasn’t initialed like other documents and he checked to confirm it was legitimate.
His vote is a “no,” Houldieson said. “The deal is already broken for me. I’ve been here 30 years. And we’ve been giving concessions while Ford has made over $75 billion since 2009. The contract is insufficient.”
Ford will close its Romeo Engine Plant as part of its tentative proposed contract agreement with the UAW. Tanya Wildt, Detroit Free Press
The tentative agreement, which UAW leadership approved on Nov. 1, itemizes $6 billion in investment and promises to create or retain 8,500 jobs. While GM workers secured an $11,000 signing bonus, full-time workers at Ford are offered $9,000 upon ratification.
Additional elements of the tentative agreement include 4% bonuses for two years and 3% wage increases for two years. While Romeo Engine is scheduled for closure, all 600 jobs are subject to transfer and buyout offers are expected to inspire older workers to retire. Ford is offering retirement incentives for workers in production and skilled trades, which have been discussed by members publicly as highly appealing. Romeo workers say they feel betrayed.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222-6512or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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