Ford workers say no to cost-saving effort

DETROIT, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Union workers at Ford Motor Co. factories rejected contract changes the U.S. automaker wanted to reduce its labor costs, officials said Saturday.

Two of the United Auto Workers' largest units at Kentucky and Dearborn, Mich., assembly plants voted down the contract Friday, sealing its fate, the Detroit Free Press reported.

As of Saturday, a majority of members at UAW units representing more than 26,000 members had voted to reject the contract, the Free Press said.

Ford said it needed the cuts to overcome advantages the United Auto Workers granted General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC as they approached bankruptcy in the spring, company sources said.

The union leadership had supported the proposal, which would have frozen the pay of newly hired workers and banned the union from striking to demand higher pay or benefits until 2015.

As part of the concession, Ford would have paid each worker a $1,000 bonus in March and would have guaranteed that new products would be assigned to certain plants, saving 7,000 jobs, union official said.

An earlier deal approved by the union last spring will save the company $500 million a year, Ford says. The rejected concessions would have saved far less, and Ford is not expected to pursue the deal, the Times reports.