Ford’s largest local OKs pact

Associated Press

DETROIT

Workers at Ford Motor Co.’s largest local union have approved a new labor contract with the company, making it likely that the four-year deal will be approved when voting finishes Tuesday.

The United Auto Workers union said Sunday that 62 percent of the 5,282 workers voting at Local 600 in Dearborn, Mich., favored the agreement. Workers at the local mainly make the F-Series pickup truck.

The Dearborn local was expected to have voted down the contract. Back in 2009, the local led an uprising that killed a second round of concessions to Ford meant to help the company through tough financial times.

The local’s approval brought the overall vote count to 57 percent in favor and about 43 percent against, with only a few large locals left to vote. The tally means that the remaining plants would have to vote overwhelmingly against the deal for it to fail.

Ford and the UAW reached a tentative agreement on the contract Oct. 4, but it must be ratified by the company’s 41,000 union workers.

UAW President Bob King has expressed confidence the agreement would pass.

Under the Ford contract agreement, most workers will get profit-sharing checks instead of annual raises. Workers also would get a $6,000 signing bonus and the promise of thousands of new jobs in U.S. plants through 2015.

The agreement is more generous than the new contract for General Motors Co. workers, who approved their deal last month by a wide margin. Chrysler Group LLC and the UAW reached a deal last week that isn’t as rich as the ones signed at Ford and GM. Workers at Chrysler, which lost money during the first half of the year, are voting this week.