The United Auto Workers' tentative contract with the FordMotor Co looked well on its way to ratification on Sunday, after the biggestlocal union pushed the overall vote in favor of the new deal to 57 percent.
With well over half of the votes cast, "yes" voteson the new contract total 11,666 with 8,746 against ratification, according toa union online posting.
The biggest local union -- UAW Local 600 based in Dearborn,Michigan, where Ford is also headquartered -- voted 3,255 to 2,027, or about 62percent, in favor of the new four-year contract, another online posting by theUAW Ford Department showed.
Local 600, which includes workers at the Dearborn TruckPlant where the company's successful F-Series pickup truck is made, accountsfor about 14 percent of all of Ford's unionized workers.
After returns last week ran against the contract at threelarge Ford plants, the tide has been reversed, in part by intense lobbying byUAW leaders who told workers it was the best deal possible in difficulteconomic times, local plant officials said.
Scott Houldieson, a secretary-treasurer of UAW Local 551where the Chicago Assembly Plant workers voted 77 percent against the contractlast week, said the union's attention should now turn toward achieving asatisfactory settlement of a grievance against Ford.
That grievance, signed by the overwhelming majority ofFord's 41,000 hourly workers, complains that the U.S. No. 2 automaker gave payraises to salaried workers but not to hourly employees.
This week, Chrysler Group LLC's 26,000 UAW-representedworkers vote on a proposed contract agreed to last Wednesday by UAW and companynegotiators. Chrysler is managed by its majority owner, Italy's Fiat SpA.
Chrysler's workers are guaranteed much less, including asigning bonus of $1,750.
Ford workers vote on the proposed pact until Tuesday withfull results expected on Wednesday.
Veteran Ford auto plant workers make $28.12 per hour, andwill see no increase in base pay. They have not received a base pay raise since2003. Skilled trades workers make several dollars more per hour.
Wages for new hires, currently about $15.50 per hour atFord, would rise to $19.28 per hour over the life of the contract.
Most Ford workers are guaranteed bonuses of at least $16,000over the life of the contract, including a $6,000 signing bonus.
That is more generous than the deal General Motors Coworkers ratified by nearly a 2-to-1 count in late September.
GM has about 48,500 unionized workers.