The United Auto Workers (UAW) has announced a tentative agreement with Ford Motor Company to end its strike, securing massive wage hikes for auto workers and a right to strike whenever the automaker closes a plant.
Late Wednesday evening, UAW officials Shawn Fain and Chuck Browning announced the agreement, which will see auto workers return to their jobs at Ford while the deal makes its way through the ratification process.
According to the UAW-Ford agreement, auto workers will see more in base wage increases than they have seen in the last 22 years at the auto company. Specifically, the agreement authorizes 25 percent in base wage increases through April 2028 and will raise top wages by more than 30 percent to more than $40 an hour.
Starting wages will be raised by 68 percent to more than $28 an hour, the agreement states. Fain and Browning said Ford’s lowest-paid workers will have their wages raised by more than 150 percent over the tenure of the four-year agreement.
“We won things nobody thought possible,” Fain said in a statement:
Since the strike began, Ford put 50% more on the table than when we walked out. This agreement sets us on a new path to make things right at Ford, at the Big Three, and across the auto industry. Together, we are turning the tide for the working class in this country. [Emphasis added]
Most significantly, the agreement will reinstate benefits that auto workers at Ford have not enjoyed since the Great Recession such as cost-of-living allowances, a three-year wage progression, and an elimination of wage tiers among union workers.
Likewise, the agreement includes a right to strike whenever Ford closes a plant in the United States. UAW officials consider this provision a historic win because the union has never been given the right to strike over plant closures.
The deal between the UAW and Ford comes less than ten days after Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford called on the labor union to reach an agreement and end its strike — defending American manufacturing and union workers.
“A strong manufacturing base is critical to our national security. Building things in America matters now more than ever, especially in these uncertain times. We cannot take that for granted,” Ford said. “… Ford is the strongest partner the UAW has ever known.”
Meanwhile, the UAW’s strike against General Motors and Stellantis continues.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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