UAW members approve new contract with Ford, Stellantis and GM

Union workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors have ratified a new 4.5-year contract, guaranteeing 11% wage increases achieved after a six-week strike in September and October.

The United Auto Workers union said about 67% of Ford employees represented by the UAW voted in favor of the contract, which will last until April 30, 2028.

Voting officially ends Friday, but with about 57,000 unionized employees at Ford, the contract appears headed for easy ratification.

The contracts were negotiated after UAW members struck from September 15 until the end of October.

Union members will receive a total pay increase of 25% over the course of the agreement. The new contracts also restore cost-of-living adjustments, allow workers to reach top salaries in three years instead of eight, and protect their right to strike if factories close.

The UAW and automakers called the deals “record” contracts based on the wage increases. The union also said its members are getting back some of the benefits they agreed to give up after the Great Recession to help keep automakers alive.

GM workers approved the contract, but they did so by a much smaller margin than Ford employees, with about 55 percent of workers voting yes.

While UAW President Shawn Fain called the contacts a victory for workers, he also said they were part of a larger plan to claw back more long-term benefits.

According to UAW ratification vote tracking, Stellantis employees were close to approving the deal by similar margins as Ford employees. With 17,391 votes cast as of Thursday evening (EST), approximately 66% of the votes were cast in favor of accepting the contract.

Although the general terms of the contracts are similar, workers at Detroit’s Big Three automakers vote independently to accept or reject them.