Rejecting the compromise accepted by the United Auto Workers (UAW). Ford’s American employees refused the new wage concessions demanded by the management and agreed to by the UAW (see our dispatch No. 090937). There was a big majority of no votes to the wage freeze for new employees, flexible skills and ban on strikes in the group’s largest sites. In Louisville and in the truck plant in Kentucky, 84% voted against the new agreement. Likewise for 93% of unionized employees in Dearborn. UAW leader Ron Gettlefinger, aware of his failure, told the local press on Friday, October 30, that he wouldn’t ask for a new vote and would wait until the end of the existing collective agreement, which will expire in the fall 2011, to get back to the negotiating table.
al press on Friday, October 30, that he wouldn’t ask for a new vote and would wait until the end of the existing collective agreement, which will expire in the fall 2011, to get back to the negotiating table.
Unnecessary concessions. Professor Gary Chaison, expert in Industrial Relations at the Clark University, thinks that Ford’s workers massively voted no because they were “concerned about giving up too much without justification.” He went on, saying that the workers sent a message to their un
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