DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co workers represented by the United Auto Workers had rejected concessions at five plants as of Tuesday, threatening to scupper a deal to give the automaker cost parity with U.S. rivals General Motors Co and Chrysler.
Despite pressure from UAW national leaders to ratify the agreement, rank-and-file workers have objected to giving Ford the same kind of "no-strike" pledge on wages and benefits the union gave GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy.
Workers at a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, where they build Ford's iconic Mustang sports car, rejected the tentative deal by a margin of 1,265 against and 485 in favor in a tally released on Tuesday afternoon.
The Flat Rock vote followed a landslide 92 percent rejection of the deal at Ford's Kansas City, Missouri, assembly plant that builds the F-150 pickup and the Escape SUV. Local units in Livonia, Sterling Heights and Canton also rejected the agreement.
Workers at five other UAW plants supported the tentative pact last week, leaving passage of the concessionary deal down to a crucial series of votes later this week.
The UAW and Ford announced the tentative agreement on October 13. It includes production commitments from Ford intended to protect jobs and a one-time $1,000 bonus for workers.
The voting so far has been a setback for Ford, which posted net losses of $30 billion over the past three years and expects a return to annual profits in 2011, and the UAW's national leaders who have recommended ratification of the deal.
Ultimately, if Ford workers reject the agreement, they also would be rejecting pattern bargaining that has ruled financial negotiations with the Detroit-based automakers.
Ford has said agreements GM and Chrysler made with the UAW around their government-supported reorganizations would put the company at a disadvantage over the long term.
Ratification is by a cumulative vote of the roughly 41,000 Ford UAW-represented workers at the various locals across the United States.
WORKERS 'APPREHENSIVE AND ANGRY'
"For Ford, they view the contract as key to competing effectively," said Harley Shaiken, a labor law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "For the UAW, they view the contract as critical to locking in future jobs.
"But you've got a lot of apprehensive and angry members out there because of a dismal economy and an industry that has been on a roller coaster. That combination is proving volatile in these votes."
Voting will not wrap up until Friday at UAW Local 600, which represents several thousand workers at multiple Ford facilities, including the Dearborn truck assembly plant where leaders have voiced opposition to the givebacks.
Kansas City workers raised concerns about the "no-strike" provision, a blurring of job classifications among skilled workers who make higher wages and a lack of limits on new entry-level hiring through 2015, local President Jeff Wright said.
UAW workers have made a series of givebacks to Ford since 2005, most recently approving changes negotiated in February that Ford said would save $500 million per year.
Several local union officials have said they expected a tougher sell this time after the string of recent concessions.
"I supported it," said UAW Local 182 President Steve Zimmerla, who represents workers at Ford's Livonia transmission plant. "I think it was the right thing to do for our future.
"But these are difficult times in the industry and the February concessions are still on everyone's mind."
Analysts see Ford as in a better competitive position than GM or Chrysler and some believe Ford could return to a full- year profit as soon as 2010.
Ford borrowed more than $23 billion in late 2006 to finance its turnaround and remains the only large U.S.-based automaker not to seek emergency U.S. government loans.
But the automaker has much more debt on its balance sheet than rivals GM and Chrysler, which shed billions of dollars of debt through the bankruptcy process.
Ford shares were down 18 cents, or 2.4 percent, at $7.29 on in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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