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After UAW’s tentative deal with Ford, other striking workers are ‘cautiously optimistic’ – Daily Montanan [1]

['Ken Coleman', 'More From Author', '- October']

Date: 2023-10-27  

As the overnight rain blew over metro Detroit during the wee hours of Friday morning and was followed by a bright orange sunrise, some striking United Auto Workers members seemed hopeful that their strike against the Detroit Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — would end soon.

Tom Michilak, a 9-year employee at the Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant, wants to see a 30% wage increase, but also wants to hear more details about the UAW’s tentative deal with Ford that was announced Wednesday night.

“I’m somewhat cautiously optimistic,” Michilak said on Friday about the likelihood of his union and his employer settling the strike now in its 43rd day.

The strike affects about 46,000 people and 40 plants and part centers across the nation.

The Ford tentative agreement includes a 25% wage increase during the course of 4.5 years, starting with an initial pay hike of 11%. The deal will now go through the union’s process for ratification, ending with UAW members having the final say. But workers are back on the job at Ford plants, including the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne.

While Ford did not detail the terms of the tentative agreement, the UAW released some of the terms:

It provides more in base wage increases than Ford workers have received in the past 22 years. The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028.It cumulatively raises the top wage by more than 30% to more than $40 an hour.

It raises the starting wage by 68%, to more than $28 an hour.The lowest-paid workers at Ford will see a raise of more than 150% during the life of the agreement. Some workers will receive an immediate 85% increase immediately upon ratification. The agreement reinstates major benefits lost during the Great Recession, including cost-of-living allowances and a 3-year wage progression, as well as killing wage tiers in the union. It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans. It also includes a historic right to strike over plant closures, a first for the union.

UAW Vice President Chuck Browning said the tentative agreement with Ford has historic wins.

“Our union has united in a way we haven’t seen in years. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, our members came together to tell the Big Three with one voice that record profits mean a record contract,” said Browning. “Thanks to the power of our members on the picket line and the threat of more strikes to come, we have won the most lucrative agreement per member since Walter Reuther was president.”

Tony Gardner, a 32-year Mopar employee, walked the wet pavement overnight at the Stellantis Mopar Center Line Parts Distribution Center.

“I’m glad that Ford got a tentative agreement and hopefully GM and Stellantis will follow suit,” Gardner said.

This story was originally produced by the Michigan Advance which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/10/27/after-uaws-tentative-deal-with-ford-other-striking-workers-are-cautiously-optimistic/

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