A tentative agreement has been reached between the United Autoworkers Union (UAW) and Ford.
The union announced the development Wednesday evening and said its negotiators voted unanimously to recommend the agreement to the Ford Nation Council with UAW. However, the terms of the deal are not being released to the public until after they have been presented to the 55,000 Ford employees in the U.S. for a ratification vote.
The deal comes two weeks after the UAW reached a deal with General Motors, which ultimately ended an over a month-long strike of its 46,000 employees.
“Our negotiating team worked diligently during the General Motors strike to maintain productive negotiations with Ford," UAW Vice President Rory Gamble. "The pattern bargaining strategy has been a very effective approach for UAW and its members to secure economic gains around salary, benefits and secured over $6 billion in major product investments in American facilities, creating and retaining over 8,500 jobs for our communities.”
Many of the contract issues had already been ironed out between the two sides, but recent negotiations focused on the co-pay for health care and the ratification bonus.
The UAW-Ford National Council will now meet to go over details of the proposed tentative agreement. If adopted as a Tentative Agreement, it will go to all Ford hourly and salary members for a ratification vote.
Once an agreement is ratified for Ford employees, the UAW will turn its attention to similar negotiations with Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles.
-With files from Mark Brown