San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)

STELLANTIS, FORD WORKERS OK CONTRACT SETTLEMENT

Autoworker­s will see large increases in pay under long-awaited deal

- BY TOM KRISHER Krisher writes for The Associated Press.

The United Auto Workers union overwhelmi­ngly ratified new contracts with Ford and Stellantis, that along with a similar deal with General Motors will raise pay across the industry, force automakers to absorb higher costs and help reshape the auto business as it shifts away from gasoline-fueled vehicles.

Workers at Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles, voted 68.8 percent in favor of the deal. Their approval brought to a close a contentiou­s labor dispute that included name-calling and a series of punishing strikes that imposed high costs on the companies and led to significan­t gains in pay and benefits for UAW workers.

The deal at Stellantis passed by a roughly 10,000-vote margin, with ballot counts ending Saturday afternoon.

Workers at Ford voted 69.3 percent in favor of the pact, which passed with nearly a 15,000-vote margin in balloting that ended early Saturday. Earlier in the week, GM workers narrowly approved a similar contract.

The agreements, which run through April 2028, will end contentiou­s talks that began last summer and led to six-week-long strikes at all three automakers. Shawn Fain, the new UAW leader, had branded the companies enemies of the UAW who were led by overpaid CEOS, declaring the days of union cooperatio­n with the automakers were over.

After summerlong negotiatio­ns failed to produce a deal, Fain kicked off strikes on Sept. 15 at one assembly plant at each company. The union later extended the strike to parts warehouses and other factories to try to intensify pressure on automakers until tentative agreements were reached in October.

The new contract agreements were widely seen as a victory for the UAW. The companies agreed to dramatical­ly raise pay for top-scale assembly plant workers, with increases and cost-of-living adjustment­s that would translate into 33 percent wage gains. Top assembly plant workers are to receive immediate 11 percent raises and will earn roughly $42 an hour when the contracts expire.

Under the agreements, the automakers also ended many of the multiple tiers of wages they had used to pay different workers. They also agreed in principle to bring new electric-vehicle battery plants into the national union contract. This provision will give the UAW an opportunit­y to unionize the EV battery plants, which will represent a rising share of industry jobs in the years ahead.

“I think this is a huge win for the UAW that they got all three contracts ratified,” said Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University. “It's lifting the boats of all or many autoworker­s.”

Three non-union, foreign automakers in the United States — Honda, Toyota and Hyundai — quickly responded to the UAW contract by raising wages for their factory workers.

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