UAW Workers At Ford Ratify 4-Year Contract

United Auto Workers members have ratified a historic four-year contract with Ford Motor Co. that sets lower pay for some newly hired workers and puts the company's huge retiree health care debt into a UAW-run trust.

The UAW represents about 54,000 workers at Ford, with 79 percent of those voting in favor of the pact, the union said Wednesday. The UAW does not normally release vote totals.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union negotiated a contract that protects wages, benefits and seniority rights and provides income and secure health care for retirees.

"We stood our ground in the face of some rather big asks by the company and came away with a creative agreement that addresses the concerns of our members and also gives the company the opportunity to move forward," he said in a statement. "Now it's up to Ford to successfully bring to market the top-quality vehicles our members are building in UAW Ford factories."

The UAW said production workers voted 81 percent in favor of the deal, while skilled trades workers were 71 percent in favor.

In addition to the active workers, the deal covers more than 94,000 Ford retirees and 28,000 surviving spouses. It will run until Sept. 14, 2011.

Workers at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC already have ratified similar deals, with the contract winning at Chrysler by only a small margin. Unlike the other two automakers, there was no strike at Ford.

The landmark deals have been praised by the companies and union for protecting jobs while at the same time cutting labor costs to make the struggling automakers more competitive with their Japanese rivals.

The Ford deal was reached in the early morning hours of Nov. 3 after a nearly two-day bargaining session at the company's Dearborn headquarters.

In exchange for the wage cuts and other concessions, Ford promised not to close any U.S. plants beyond some it already has identified. It also promised future products to six U.S. assembly plants and agreed to make hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of improvements to factories.

Industry analysts say the pact should help the ailing automaker by lowering wages for thousands of new workers and moving its retiree health care obligations to a union-run trust.