Nov. 16--Union workers at Ford's Chicago Heights body panel plant voted over the weekend to accept a national contract negotiated by the United Auto Workers.
UAW members at the larger Ford assembly plant on Chicago's Far South Side are due to begin voting Tuesday, but the automaker has been hit by a setback as workers at its largest U.S. plant in Kansas City reportedly rejected the deal.
At UAW Local 588, which represents about 1,125 workers at the Chicago Heights plant, 55 percent of skilled trade workers and 60 percent of production workers voted to ratify the national deal, according to the Facebook page of UAW 551, which represents workers at the Far South Side plant.
Nationwide, the majority of workers at early-voting plants have also backed the deal, which would see a national investment of $9 billion, including $1.1 billion invested in the two Chicago-area plants over the next four years and the addition of 200 union workers hired on the Far South Side.
UAW members at Ford's Kansas City plant, which employs 7,500 workers, narrowly voted on Sunday to reject the deal. Workers at that plant came close to striking earlier in the year during a dispute over their local contract.
The "no" vote in Missouri means that the vote at the Far South Side Torrence Avenue plant will be closely watched. It employs 4,100 UAW members and is Ford's longest continually running factory in the world.
Under the proposed deal, workers would get two 3 percent raises over the next four years, as well as $1,500 inflation payments and immediate bonuses and profit sharing payments that add up to $10,250 this year for permanent employees.
UAW Local 551 is due to vote Tuesday and Wednesday. Whether the national deal is ratified will be determined by a national tally of votes.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
