THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170266
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BRIAN S. AKRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DEARBORN, MICH. LENGTH: 72 lines
Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement Monday on a new national contract for Ford's 105,025 union workers, including 2,100-plus hourly workers at Ford's Norfolk Assembly Plant, which makes F-series pickups.
Terms of the agreement were not immediately announced.
The union's top priority was increased job security by stemming the industry tide of ``outsourcing,'' or farming out parts jobs to outside, nonunion suppliers that pay far lower wages.
The Wall Street Journal said Monday that Ford had agreed to guarantee to maintain employment of at least 85 percent of its current UAW work force, but that the union was pushing for a higher percentage.
The union and Ford also were believed to be arguing over Ford's desire for a longer period of lower wages for new hires, beyond the old contract's three years. The UAW also wanted a return to annual increases in base salaries, while Ford would rather stick with a raise in the first year, followed by annual bonuses.
Union officials also sought reduced overtime and protection of the UAW's fully paid health care benefits.
The deal came after three months of negotiations and a final weekend of marathon talks. Agreement was announced 42 hours after the current three-year pact expired midnight Saturday, but there had been no strike threat.
``Sometimes it takes a little longer,'' UAW President Stephen Yokich told reporters after shaking hands with Ford's chairman, Alex Trotman.
Trotman said he was pleased with the contract.
``It's an agreement, not a one-way street,'' he said. ``There has to be give and take on both sides. We think we have a good deal.''
The ratification vote should be held by Sept. 29, said Ernie Lofton, a vice president in charge of the UAW's Ford department.
The union's executive committee is scheduled to meet today and the union's Ford department, which would involve several hundred people, is scheduled to meet Wednesday.
Yokich, who has kept leaks from the talks to a minimum, was not even sharing details of the deal with the union locals. Local presidents were told they would get the information at Wednesday's meeting.
``They want us to be the first ones to hear about it and don't want any leaks in the press before we do,'' said Fred North, president of Local 863 in Batavia, Ohio.
The UAW will now switch its focus to talks with either Chrysler Corp. or General Motors Corp. The union has been holding lower-level talks with the two automakers since it designated Ford the lead company earlier this month.
Yokich suggested it was a deal GM and Chrysler should be able to accept.
``We were going after an agreement that all the companies can live with, and that's where we are,'' he said.
Yokich said he had not decided which company to focus on next.
``I have to see what my brothers in the Canadian Auto Workers do. . . . We have to sit down and discuss it,'' he said.
The CAW, which is independent from the UAW, has been bargaining with Chrysler Canada Ltd. Its president has threatened a strike if no deal is reached by tonight's midnight deadline, but there were signs of progress Monday.
The importance of outsourcing to the UAW was evident in a 17-day strike over the issue at two GM parts plants in Dayton, Ohio, last spring. The strike virtually shut down the No. 1 automaker's domestic production.
Any significant restrictions on outsourcing in the Ford contract are likely to be fought by GM. The largest automaker manufactures significantly more of its own parts than do Ford or Chrysler, which have completed much of the downsizing that GM is trying to accomplish now.
The UAW's chief concern has been to stop the decline in its membership, which has fallen by nearly one-fifth since the mid-1980s. Nearly 400,000 of its members work for the Big Three. Talks to replace the current three-year contracts began in June under the direction of Yokich, who assumed the union's top post in 1995. by CNB