UPDATE | Ratification of UAW, FCA deal appears mathematically impossible

DETROIT — Ratification of a deal between the UAW union and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles appears to be impossible after workers at assembly plants in Toledo, Ohio, and the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights on Tuesday overwhelming voted against a proposed four-year contract, the latest in a string of decisive defeats that now makes ratification of the deal a long shot.

In Toledo, 87 percent of production workers and 80 percent of skilled trades workers who work at the plant where the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee are built voted against the contract, according to a person briefed on the results who is not authorized to release them publicly.

The margin of defeat by workers represented by UAW Local 12 in Toledo appears to be the largest yet among UAW locals that have voted.

At UAW Local 1700 in Sterling Heights, 72 percent of production workers and 65 percent of skilled trades workers who cast ballots voted against the contract, according to a person briefed on those results.

A Detroit Free Press analysis of voting already indicated that ratification by a majority of the 40,000 union-represented workers at Fiat Chrysler was unlikely before the Jeep results were announced. Mathematically, the deal cannot pass.