The UAW recently announced that its members approved the tentative agreement with Ford by approximately 51%, just enough to ratify the agreement despite receiving greater benefits than the workers at both GM and Fiat Chrysler. Also on November 20, 2015, the UAW announced ratification with GM on its tentative agreement, after some minor changes for the skilled trades. With these two ratification announcements, the long strange trip that started in July with ceremonial handshakes and hugs is now complete (well sort of).
As part of the ratified tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler, the parties agreed to meet within 60 days of ratification to consider other alternative schedules. If the recent negotiations between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler are any indication, the process for agreeing to any new alternative schedules is unlikely to be quick. Additionally, there are bound to be issues with the implementation of the tentative agreements that were not considered during the negotiations process. The devil is in the details.
With the tentative agreements ratified, the Big 3 can now turn their attention back to the business of building cars, just in time for the holiday season. Only time will tell how the UAW and Big 3 will fair next time around in 2019.
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