UAW Nears Deal With Ford That Could End Six-Week Strike, Report Says

One week after United Auto Workers boss Shaw Fain targeted Ford Motor Company's largest and most profitable plant in Kentucky, sources tell AP News that the union appears to be inching closer to a tentative contract agreement with the automaker that could end the six-week strike. 

Two people familiar with discussions said UAW made a counter-offer to Ford of a 25% general wage increase over the new four-year contract. They said Tuesday talks between the union and automaker extended well into Wednesday morning. Ford has previously offered UAW a 23% pay hike. 

They added that Ford would include cost-of-living pay adjustments that could send pay increases above 30%, and workers would receive annual profit-sharing checks. 

It's still possible that contract talks could sour, and UAW boss Fain could hit Ford with a 'surprise' labor action, sort of like what happened last week when Ford's Louisville plant, which makes Ford Super Duty pickups, the Ford Expedition, and the Lincoln Navigator SUVs, was hit with an 8,700-member UAW strike. 

The progress with Ford comes a day after the UAW hit General Motors' largest and most profitable SUV plant in Arlington, Virginia, with a 5,000-member strike on Tuesday. Sources say there has been some progress in labor talks with GM. 

As of Wednesday, 46,000 UAW workers are striking across all three automakers, or about 32% of the union's 146,000 members. 

"I think that Shawn Fain struck these plants at this particular time over the past week because he thought they would be near a deal and this would be the extra nudge to get something cemented," Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, told AP. 

Masters continued, "When you look at the movement and the concessions, they're getting smaller but moving closer to what the union wanted."

During GM's earnings report on Tuesday, CFO Paul Jacobson said, "We can't get ourselves in a situation of signing a deal that we can't afford to pay or that doesn't allow us to compete in the global marketplace."

And this. 

Thanks UAW.