The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), November 12, 2007, Monday
Copyright 2007 The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
All Rights Reserved
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)
November 12, 2007 Monday
METRO Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A
BYLINE: Jere Downs jdowns@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal
BODY:
New 4-year deal
gets 80% approval
By Jere Downs
jdowns@courier-journal.com
{}The Courier-Journal
Louisville-area United Auto Workers members overwhelmingly approved a four-year contract with Ford Motor Co. yesterday in which the automaker pledged job security and major investment in its two local plants.
The outcome matched similar ratification votes around the country.
Eighty percent of production workers voting yesterday at the Kentucky International Convention Center approved the deal, with 75 percent of skilled- trade workers voting yes, UAW Local 862 President Rocky Comito said.
"Hopefully that shows union leadership that workers have overwhelming confidence in them," Comito said at a news conference last night .
"I was hoping it would be unanimous," he added. "... No matter what you do, there's no perfect contract."
The vote comes as Ford C hief E xecutive O fficer Alan Mulally is expected to unveil more of his restructuring plans for the struggling automaker. They may include more layoffs or buyouts, Mulally said Thursday.
Enthusiasm for the contract was matched by locals approving it by similar majorities in Chicago and in Ypsilanti and Flat Rock, Mich. Closer to the Dearborn automaker's headquarters last night, the contract also won broad approval from Local 900, representing 5,000 workers at the Michigan Truck Plant and Ford's Wayne Stamping & Assembly facility. About 54,000 UAW members nationwide will conclude voting this week .
As Ford closed 10 plants in recent years, job security has been the top priority of autoworkers, particularly at the Louisville Assembly Plant on Fern Valley Road, considered one of six plants at risk for closure. That factory makes the Ford Explorer, and its work force has been winnowed through recent buyouts to 2,000.
The new contract pledges that a new, yet-to-be- identified vehicle will be built at the plant by 2009. Ford is expected to take advantage of $200million in state incentives to retool both Louisville Assembly and the Kentucky Truck Plant on Chamberlain Lane, which employs 4,000 union members.
But promises of job security came at a steep cost to the UAW. Ford can hire up to 20 percent of new employees at half the old union pay scale of $28 an hour. Medical benefits for retirees will be paid for and administered by a union-administered health-care trust, funded by Ford.
For Donna Totten, 40, of Mauckport, Ind., the vote was all about holding on to her job of nine years at Kentucky T ruck .
"It's a good job and I want to keep it," Totten said as she left the polls with Eli, her 3-year-old son, and husband, Doug.
But truck plant pipefitter John Cain, 35, of Fern Creek said he voted no after Mulally's talk of more layoffs and buyouts.
"I don't trust him to honor any part of this contract," Cain said.
Ford, which lost $12.6billion last year, may default on its job- security promises, Cornell University labor relations professor Richard W. Hurd said in an interview.
"It is really difficult to judge right now whether the union has gone beyond the limits of reasonable compromise in the interest of long-term job security, or if it is exactly what they need to do," Hurd said.
Weary after years of living in the shadow of plant closures, many workers said the concessions were necessary.
Steve Hartung, 47, who has worked in the Kentucky Truck paint department for 13 years, said he voted yes even though he doesn't like the two-tier wage system.
"The lower manufacturing wage will set a new low that will be followed by companies everywhere," Hartung said. Ford is "taking a shot at what has made middle- class America exist."
James Walker, who has worked at Louisville Assembly for 10 years, voted yes despite higher co-payments for mail-order prescription drugs, doctor's appointments and emergency room visits in the contract.
"Ford has to tighten up a little bit, so we got to give a little bit more," Walker said.
Some workers predicted that the new, lower-paid work force would experience high turnover and hamper quality on the assembly line, a contention Comito rebutted in his remarks.
"They will be entry-level employees who, eventually, could move up," he said.
Kentucky Truck employees Kevin Shook, of La Grange, and James Morrow, 53, of Crestwood, both voted no to protest the lower wage structure.
Under the new contract, Shook said he will likely have to cede his coveted janitorial position and return to the assembly line.
"They are allowing people to come in off the street for $14 an hour to do the job that took me 20 years to get," said Shook, 42. "I am too old to be climbing in and out of trucks again."
Morrow, who has 31 years with Ford, agreed.
"Somebody's got to stand up for the younger generation," said Morrow, a paint booth cleaner. "We know we're in the minority."
Joe Gorsick, 46, of La Grange, a skilled-trade chairman at the truck plant, said the contract represented the best deal for union members in uncertain times.
"It's a fantastic contract," Gorsick said, "Our negotiators had the creativity to give Ford the same kind of savings at GM and Chrysler while protecting our premium jobs and our seniority."
Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669.
Detroit Free Press reporter Sarah A. Webster contributed to this story.
HIGHLIGHTS
Louisville Assembly Plant remains open, with new, unnamed vehicle to replace Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Explorer Sport Trac during the life of the four-year contract.
Kentucky Truck Plant retains production of F-Series Super Duty Trucks, including F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 models.
Ford commits to extensive investment in both plants, including installation of new flexible body shops to manufacture diverse makes and models of vehicles.
Lower pay rates and fewer benefits for new union workers in non assembly-line jobs.
The United Auto Workers will assume burden of retiree health care through a union-run trust fund paid for by Ford Motor Co.
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