Ford presents new offer to UAW while announcing layoffs
Dearborn, MI – Ford made a comprehensive offer to the UAW in an effort to reach a tentative agreement on a new master labor agreement through April 30, 2028. It is the seventh and strongest offer Ford has made on the key economic issues since Aug. 29. Ford has received two comprehensive counteroffers from the UAW, the last on Sept. 25. Ford’s latest offer provides our 57,000 UAW-represented employees with a record contract and a strong future. Ford’s offer includes unprecedented improvements in wages (putting employees among the top 25% of all U.S. jobs, hourly and salaried) and benefits, product commitments for every UAW factory and job security. At the same time, it preserves Ford’s ability to invest and grow.
“There’s no doubt our UAW workforce put us on their shoulders during the pandemic, and these same workers and their families were hit hard by inflation. We want to make sure our workers come out of these negotiations with two things – a record contract and a strong future,” said Jim Farley, president and CEO, Ford Motor Company. “We’ve put an offer on the table that will be costly for the company, especially given our large American footprint and UAW workforce, but one that we believe still allows Ford to invest in the future.”
The union has taken a hard line on battery plants. While Ford remains open to the possibility of working with the UAW on future battery plants in the United States, these are multi-billion-dollar investments and must operate at competitive and sustainable levels. Three of the four battery plants under construction are part of the BlueOval SK joint venture between Ford and SK On. The workforce for these operations has not been hired. The future employees at these operations can choose to be union represented and enter into the collective bargaining process. As Ford has made clear, none of our employees, including powertrain employees, will lose their jobs due to our battery plants during this contract period. In fact, for the foreseeable future, we will have to hire more workers as some workers retire, in order to keep up with demand for our ICE products.
This latest round of layoffs consists of 350 workers at the Livonia Transmission plant and 50 employees at the Sterling Axle plant, all of whom were told to not report to workFord has laid off an additional 400 workers at other plants as ripple effects from the strike continue, according to Automotive News. That brings the total number of layoffs for the Blue Oval to 1,330 that stem from the UAW strike, which began back on September 15th. Both of these facilities supply parts to the Chicago Assembly plant, which builds the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator.