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UAW voting shows Ford unions furthest in voting process

Yunus Yildiz
/
Unsplash

Rank and file members of the United Auto Workers continue voting this week on tentative contracts with Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. It's early in the process, but as Tracy Samilton reports, there are a couple surprises thus far.

Ford's union locals are the furthest in the voting process. The total vote at this point is more than 63 percent in favor of ratification.

But at one plant, Ford's big Kentucky Truck plant, more than 57 percent of the production workers who voted, voted not to ratify.

And a slim majority of production workers at Ford's Louisville Assembly plant also voted not to ratify.

One analyst notes that fewer than half of the production workers at the truck plant cast ballots, which could have slanted the results.

GM's Flint Assembly plant workers also voted not to ratify. But there aren't enough overall plant results from GM or Stellantis to see if there's a trend.

Tracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Radio as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.