UAW seeks to ram through Ford deal as results at GM show split vote
The United Auto Workers union announced a tentative agreement with Ford Friday afternoon, before the final tally of a highly contested vote at General Motors had been made public. According to figures released late Friday night, a narrow majority of GM workers backed the contract announced October 25 by the UAW, but it was rejected by skilled trades workers.
The Ford agreement is based on the GM and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) contracts, which remove caps on second-tier workers and pave the way for a permanent lowering of base wages and benefits of Big Three autoworkers, as the companies push out higher-paid tier-one workers. UAW local officials are expected to approve the Ford agreement as soon as Monday, before it goes to the membership for a ratification vote beginning late next week.
The quick announcement of a deal at Ford is motivated by two factors. First, the union wants to force the Ford rank and file to vote as quickly as possible, once again giving workers virtually no time to study the deal and organize opposition. The union leadership is well aware of the enormous opposition among workers to the contracts and to the UAW itself.
A worker at the Sterling Heights Ford plant said the workers were being told there would be an information meeting next Thursday and a ratification vote the following day. “They’re stoking it up to be fantastic, the best deal ever,” he said, “but it is what we don’t hear that worries me. We’re going to sit in a little room while they tell us about how hard they worked for us and that we should hurry up and vote ‘yes.’”
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/11/07/auto-n07.html
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