UAW Makes Contract Counteroffer to Ford; Stellantis makes an offer
By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The United Auto Workers (UAW) union presented Ford Motor with a labor contract counter-proposal on economic issues on Wednesday, while Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis was planning its counter-offer this week.
Talks are mounting about the September 14 expiry of the current four-year contracts for 146,000 workers at the Detroit Three automakers. According to the UAW, 97% of members voted to authorize a strike if no agreement is reached.
“They have chosen to go down the same path as in the past, which is delay, delay,” UAW President Shawn Fain told CNBC Wednesday night. “They have now waited until the last eight days to want to start the conversation – so we still have a lot of work to do.”
Last week, Ford said it had offered a 9% pay rise through 2027, much less than the 46% pay rise the union was targeting. The UAW expects to receive a proposal from General Motors on Thursday, a source who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters. GM confirmed it would meet with the UAW Thursday but declined to give details.
Stellantis said Wednesday it intends to submit a counteroffer to the UAW on the union’s economic demands by the end of the week.
Ford said Wednesday it was continuing negotiations with the UAW but declined to comment on the details of the talks.
Last week, the UAW filed unfair labor practices charges against GM and Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis with the National Labor Relations Board, saying they refused to negotiate in good faith.
The union’s demands include an immediate 20% wage increase, followed by four annual wage increases of 5% each, defined benefit pensions for all workers, 32-hour workweeks and additional cost-of-living increases.
The UAW also wants all contract workers at US automakers to be permanent, profit-sharing to be improved, health insurance benefits to retirees to be restored, and cost of living to be adjusted.
The UAW said Ford did not want a cap on temporary workers and that those workers would not participate in profit-sharing, would earn less than 60% of the top wage for permanent workers, and would receive inferior health care benefits.
Ford announced it would raise the starting wage for temp workers to $20 an hour, a 20% increase, and offer permanent workers a $12,000 cost-of-living adjustment over the contract.
The UAW said the change in Ford’s profit-sharing formula reduced payouts by 21% over the past two years, while Ford said it will offer a $5,500 signing bonus to permanent and temporary employees upon ratification of the contract.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
