Ford workers favoring UAW pact

Workers at five Ford Motor Co. plants and facilities across the country are overwhelmingly voting to approve a new contract between the Dearborn automaker and the United Auto Workers union, according to sources familiar with early voting.

Approval came from the Chicago Stamping Plant, where 75 percent of the factory's workers voted in favor of the four-year contract, the sources said. The plant makes body panels.

Workers at the Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti also approved the tentative contract, with 83 percent in favor. That plant makes alternators, fuel pumps, and injectors.

Three other facilities -- a parts distribution centers in Portland, Oregon, Houston and Sacramento, Calif. -- also voted overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement. The sources said the approval rating was above 85 percent.

Ford and the UAW reached a tentative agreement Saturday. Local UAW presidents unanimously approved the contract on Monday, and now rank-and-file members are voting. Voting began Thursday.

The proposed contract includes a two-tier wage system that would pay new hires less than current employees and transfers responsibility for retiree health care to a union-run trust fund. It keeps open plants that were slated to close and calls for investment in U.S. manufacturing facilities.