Job security is Job 1
UAW negotiating team at Ford wins product, investment commitments
It’s huge!” That’s how Kentucky Truck Plant production worker Amy Burton reacted when she heard about the new investment in her facility that is part of the new contract ratified by Ford workers in November.
“That is a great investment in the plants and the people in Louisville,” Burton told co-workers.
Indeed, the 2007 UAW National Negotiating Committee at Ford won product commitments and several investments in new body shops and other improvements at plants nationwide.
The 12-year veteran worker from UAW Local 862 figured it would all work out, even as negotiations went nearly two months past the old contract’s expiration. After all, members of the bargaining committee, elected by their co-workers, knew firsthand how important the new contract would be for UAW members, their families and their communities.
When it was all completed in early November, she was pleasantly surprised the committee brought back a proposed contract that provided solid economic gains, kept open plants that were threatened with closure, won new work, maintained reasonable health care costs for active workers, and improved retirees’ income and health care.
“I don’t see how anybody can be disappointed in how things turned out,” she said after it was ratified by the plant’s production workers by an 80 percent majority and by 75 percent of the facility’s skilled-trades workers. “Everything turned out great. We got a lot of things I didn’t think we’d be getting.”
Nationwide, 79 percent of UAW Ford workers voted to approve the contract, with 81 percent of production workers and 71 percent of skilled-trades workers voting in favor of the agreement.
Burton, whose dad is retired from Kentucky Truck and whose sister and husband also work there, said she trusted her union to get the job done. And while her plant wasn’t facing immediate closure, other plants were on a list to be shuttered.
On Nov. 5 UAW Vice President Bob King, who directs the union’s National Ford Department, told the Ford National Council, composed of delegates from UAW Ford local unions, that with shrinking market share, Ford is facing a very difficult financial situation. But during negotiations, he repeatedly told national negotiators that they would not walk away from the bargaining table without firm commitments from Ford for new work.
“We had to get product and we had to get investment,” King told the council. “If you don’t have product and you don’t have investment, you’re not doing what’s right for the membership.”
Mission accomplished: Six plants Ford wanted to close were kept open. Union negotiators convinced Ford that investment in the top-quality, UAW workforce is the true “way forward.” Workers also received lump-sum bonuses, improvements in pensions, and retiree health care was protected.
“This is the next closest thing to a miracle,” Reggie Osborne, president at Dearborn (Mich.) Diversified Mfg. Plant, a unit of UAW Local 600, said at the council meeting. “I just want to thank you guys for a job well done.”
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger also commended the committee for its professionalism and dedication. "This was truly a team, a team that stuck to the issues," he said, adding that Ford’s top leadership showed true interest in reaching a contract that rebuilds the company and works for the UAW membership.
As for Amy Burton, she says the ball is now in management’s court.
UAW members have responded by building quality vehicles, improving productivity and making sacrifices at the bargaining table. Management listened to the union during these negotiations.
Burton says Ford executives must also listen to the consumer, or none of these accomplishments matter. But she’s optimistic.
“I really think that in four years it will be significantly better,” she said.
