Vol. 73/No. 44      November 16, 2009

As voting on the contract was winding down, Ford posted a third quarter profit of $997 million.

The contract proposals were arrived at through reopening the four-year 2007 pact for the second time this year by agreement of Ford management and union officials. The proposals included a wage freeze for new hires, a ban on strikes over wages and benefits until 2015, job combinations, and increased management flexibility to move workers around. Workers would have received a $1,000 bonus in March 2010.

At the plant in Claycomo, Missouri, where the Escape SUV is produced, 92 percent of those voting rejected the contract. At the Chicago Assembly Plant, which makes the Taurus model, 75 percent voted no, and 80 percent rejected it at the Chicago Stamping Plant. At the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan 93 percent voted no. The concessions package was approved at the plants in Cleveland; Indianapolis; Wayne, Michigan; and St. Paul, Minnesota.

The 41,000 UAW workers at Ford had already accepted a round of concessions earlier this year. At the urging of UAW leaders, union members at Chrysler and General Motors, the two other companies in the traditional “big three” U.S automakers, had accepted deep concession contracts in the spring as those companies headed into bankruptcy proceedings.

UAW tops had pushed for concessions to Ford as necessary to preserve jobs and help keep the company competitive with its two rivals. That argument became harder to sell after Ford posted profits in the last quarter and bragged about its improved financial standing.

Lynnett Henderson, a 20-year electrician at the Chicago plant, told the Militant, “We’ve already given up so much that people are not in the mood to give up any more. All that’s being offered in exchange for the cutbacks is a $1,000 bonus next spring.” She transferred to the Chicago plant from St. Louis when Ford closed its plant there.

Henderson explained that when Ford changed the work schedule for production workers from five eight-hour days to four 10-hour days with Fridays off, the skilled trades workers remained on the old five-day eight-hour schedule. This, she said, meant a cut of about $30,000 a year for each worker, since work that used to be done on Saturdays at time and a half was now done on Fridays at straight time. “This came on top of the freeze in raises for all Ford workers,” she added.

Ilona Gersh and John Hawkins from Chicago contributed to this article.
 
 
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