During a six-week strike in September and October, union members at Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors ratified a new four and a half-year contract that locks in at 11% pay increases.
The agreement, which runs through April 30, 2028, was approved by about 67% of the Ford workers that the United Auto Workers represents.
Although the voting period officially ends on Friday, the contract looked like it would be easily ratified given that Ford employs about 57,000 union workers.
After the UAW went on strike from September 15 to late October, the contracts were negotiated.
Over the term of the agreement, union members will receive a 25% pay increase overall. In addition, the new contracts preserve workers’ right to strike over plant closures, allow them to reach top wages in three years rather than eight, and restore cost-of-living adjustments.
Based on those pay increases, the UAW and the automakers referred to the agreements as “record” contracts. The union added that in order to keep the automakers afloat during the Great Recession, members were getting back some of the benefits they had previously agreed to give up.
Although GM employees approved the contract by a much smaller margin than Ford employees—roughly 55% of workers cast yes votes—than Ford employees did.
Although UAW President Shawn Fain has referred to the contacts as a win for the workforce, he has also stated that they are only a small portion of a bigger strategy to recoup more benefits in the long run.
The UAW’s ratification vote tracker indicated that Stellantis workers were expected to approve the deal at comparable margins to those of Ford workers. As of Thursday night ET, 17,391 votes had been counted, meaning that roughly 66% of voters supported accepting the contract.
Although the contracts’ general terms are similar, employees of Detroit’s Big Three automakers are independently voting to approve or reject them.
