Claycomo workers reject concessions

Union workers at Ford Motor Co.’s Claycomo plant have overwhelmingly rejected another round of concessions the automaker said were needed to remain competitive. The vote was just 147 in favor and 1,712 — 92 percent — against the concessions, which would match agreements the United Auto Workers reached with General Motors and Chrysler.

“Our membership made its feelings known loud and clear,” said Jeff Wright, president of UAW Local 249 at Claycomo.

Workers at Ford plants in Cleveland and Wayne, Mich., have approved the concessions, but employees at two other Michigan plants joined the Claycomo workers in rejecting it. The rest of Ford’s 41,000 U.S. hourly workers will be voting throughout the week, the last ones on Saturday, so at this point the fate of the concessions is unclear.

UAW Vice President Bob King, who came to Claycomo to promote the concessions to the plant’s 3,737 hourly workers, wouldn’t say what the union might do if the accord was rejected.

The concessions call for a six-year ban on strikes over wages and benefits and a freeze on pay for new hires. They are similar to those accepted by GM and Chrysler, which unlike Ford had to go through bankruptcy.

Workers at Claycomo and Ford’s other plants accepted previous cost-cutting proposals, including one approved earlier this year. In March, 59 percent of production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades employees approved concessions that included giving up annual bonuses and cost-of-living increases and some layoff benefits.

But many in the Ford work force have continued to be angry since August, when Ford brought up the proposal to reopen the 2007 national contract with the UAW. Ford said it needed more concessions to compete with Chrysler and GM.

Union leaders from Ford plants around the country approved the tentative agreement earlier this month. After virtually all the local union officials rejected the notion of more concessions in August, the national UAW bargaining team was able to get Ford to agree to a $1,000 bonus for approving the concessions as well as promising new products to some of the plants.

The tentative pact indicates Ford would provide new products and several hundred new jobs at the plant in Wayne and at plants in Chicago and Louisville, Ky.

No additional commitments were made for the Claycomo plant. But in the concessions accepted earlier this year, Ford said it would provide a new vehicle and new body shop for the plant in the coming years.