Ford, UAW Reach Tentative Contract Deal

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

By TOM KRISHER

DETROIT (AP) - The Unit ed Auto Workers union said early Saturday it reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with Ford Motor Co. (F), avoiding even the threat of a strike against the struggling automaker.

The deal, reached around 3:20 a.m., must be ratified by the UAW's approximately 54,000 members covered by the contract at Ford. If approved, it would bring a close to historic negotiations that have yielded agreements designed to return U.S.-based automakers to profitability.

Details of the Ford agreement were not immediately released, but the deal likely will be close to what was negotiated with General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC.


Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., gives Jeff Washington, United Auto Workers president of Local 900 a hug and kiss on the 2008 Ford Focus assembly line at the Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., in this Oct. 15, 2007, file photo. The UAW said Saturday it reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with Ford, avoiding even the threat of a strike against the struggling automaker. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, file)


Those pacts - which were reached after short strikes against the automakers - include a union-run trust that would take over the companies' retiree health care obligations, a lower-tier wage scale for some workers and some job security pledges.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071103/D8SM58J02.html