Chicago Ford workers reject UAW’s proposed contract
By David Roeder and Matthew Bruce Sun-Times Media October 13, 2011 4:24AM
Line worker Bill Brokeshire assembles 2012 Ford Focus vehicles at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan.
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Updated: December 9, 2011 1:52PM
With Chicago emerging as a stronghold of opposition, most UAW workers voting at Ford Motor Co. so far are spurning a tentative four-year contract, setting the stage for a strike and dealing a blow to the prestige of union leaders supporting the agreement.
Seventy-seven percent of 2,317 workers at Ford’s Torrence Avenue plant who voted rejected the contract, UAW Local 551 plant Chairman Grant Morton said Thursday. The plant employs 2,700 UAW workers.
The union also said on its Facebook page that as of Thursday afternoon, 54.6 percent of more than 7,000 voting members nationwide had rejected the contract. Final results from the union’s 41,000 Ford members are expected by the middle of next week.
“We were given direction earlier today to prepare for a strike,” said Morton, who added the international union’s executive board will take a strike authorization vote if the deal is rejected nationally.
Union leaders continue to urge members to support the agreement with the fiscally strongest member of Detroit’s onetime “Big Three” automakers. “UAW members sacrificed when the company was struggling, and this agreement ensures that our members will now share in Ford’s prosperity,” union Vice President Jimmy Settles said when the agreement was reached Oct. 4.
UAW leaders said the deal would benefit its workers and the American economy, coupling higher wages and bonuses with a Ford commitment to hire 12,000 workers in the U.S. by 2015.
But many in the rank and file express anger that the deal preserves a two-tier wage system introduced in 2007. Others have taken to the web to vent anger over Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s $26.5 million pay package for 2010.
Outside the Torrence Avenue plant, feelings were raw. “We’re a little bit upset and tired of them trying to bamboozle us,” said Dale Santos of Munster, Ind. The assembly lineman who has worked for Ford since 1984 said he voted against the proposal.
“It’s all about greed. They’re doing real well now. We just want a fair shake on the deal,” Santos said.
Mario Cruz of Crown Point, Ind., who also said he voted no, has been with Ford for 16 years.
“I feel that we were in a better position than GM and Chrysler as far as the concessions we made,” Cruz said. “I feel like we gave up more and the fact that we stood by the company. These are skilled labor jobs. That’s why I don’t understand why UAW’s being put up on the wall like a dart board. Nobody says anything about electrical unions and pipefitter unions.”
Gino Berrini of Orland Park, who has been with Ford for less than a year, said he opposes the deal because new hires should make an hourly wage that’s closer to the pay of older workers.
Members may be making a mistake, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research. “I don’t think there is a better agreement behind door No. 2,” she said.
Dziczek said the UAW has lost power in recent years and the proposed deal “strikes a balance between putting money in members’ pockets and building membership.”
Morton said the membership “obviously had multiple issues. We’ll talk to the membership and find out what those issues are.”
Ford has not had a nationwide strike since 1976, when a walkout lasted nearly a month.
Contributing: Francine Knowles
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