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Posted on Mon, Oct. 26, 2009 10:18 PM
At Ford’s Claycomo plant, more concessions rejected
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Union workers at Ford Motor Co.’s Claycomo plant have overwhelmingly rejected another round of concessions the automaker said were needed to remain competitive.
The vote was just 147 in favor and 1,712 — 92 percent — against the concessions, which would match agreements the United Auto Workers reached with General Motors and Chrysler.
“Our membership made its feelings known loud and clear,” said Jeff Wright, president of UAW Local 249 at Claycomo.
Workers at two Ford plants near Cleveland, Ohio, and two others in Wayne, Mich., have approved the concessions, but employees at two other Michigan plants joined the Claycomo workers in rejecting it, a national UAW official said. The rest of Ford’s 41,000 U.S. hourly workers will be voting throughout the week, the last ones on Saturday, so at this point the fate of the concessions is unclear.
UAW Vice President Bob King, who came to Claycomo to promote the concessions to the plant’s 3,737 hourly workers, wouldn’t indicate what the union might do if the accord was rejected.
The concessions call for a six-year ban on strikes over wages and benefits and a freeze on pay for new hires.
Earlier this year, workers at Claycomo and Ford’s other plants approved concessions that included giving up annual bonuses and cost-of-living increases and some layoff benefits.
Many in the Ford work force have been angry since August, when the automaker brought up the proposal to re-open the 2007 national contract with the UAW. Ford said it needed more concessions to compete with Chrysler and GM.
Union leaders from Ford plants around the country approved the tentative agreement earlier this month. After virtually all the local union officials rejected the notion of more concessions in August, the national UAW bargaining team was able to get Ford to agree to a $1,000 bonus for approving the concessions as well as promising new products to some of the plants.
No additional commitments were made for the Claycomo plant. But in the concessions accepted earlier this year, Ford said it would provide a new vehicle and new body shop for the plant in the coming years.
Posted on Mon, Oct. 26, 2009 10:18 PM
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