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What are the details of the tentative deal reached in the UAW strike?
After weeks of industrial action it seems as though a deal has been reached, once again proving the power of workers when organised.
The United Auto Workers union have been on strike since September. The organisation has been pushing for increased pay and greater protections for staff, including the removal of lower-tier payments for workers. It seems they have got their wishes, at least in part.
A deal has been struck between the union and Ford, one of the motor companies at the centre of strikes. It looks pretty promising for the workers, who have achieved nearly all of what they set out to receive. Here is what is included:
- Immediate 11% wage increase
- 25% wage increase over the life of the contract
- By end of the contract worker pay will have risen 33% to over $40 an hour
- Lowest-paid temporary workers would see raises of more than 150% over the contract term
- Lower-pay tiers at Ford scrapped
“We told Ford to pony up and they did,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video post on Facebook, adding that the strike at Ford “has delivered”.
45,000 of the 140,000 workers will return to work while the deal is ratified.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the UAW covering our US operations,” Ford CEO and President Jim Farley said in a statement.
Why are UAW workers striking?
The election of Shawn Fain was seen by many UAW members as a new page in the union’s history. The theory that change was coming would be proven true earlier this month when the UAW announced it would be striking the ‘Big Three’ US auto manufacturers, Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
Fain said the Detroit Three automakers had offered the 146,000 autoworkers pay raises of as much as 20% over four and a half years; these were refused as inadequate. CEO pays are in the tens of millions of dollars.
His union argues that this figure should be closer to 46% over the same time period, increasing pay to $47 an hour. Other demands are reduced work hours with full pay, an end to tiered wages for factory jobs, and the reinstatement of traditional pensions which workers who joined after 2007 don’t receive.
“If they’ve got money for Wall Street they sure as hell have money for the workers making the product,” Fain has said. “We fight for the good of the entire working class and the poor.”