Under a new contract, Canadian employees of Ford have agreed to a three-year pay freeze. The Canadian Auto Workers union announced that 78% of its 8,900 members voted in favor of the new collective agreement over the weekend.
"This agreement is a victory for our members," CAW President Buzz Hargrove said. "It takes care of current workers and retirees while recognizing the challenges facing the industry. And it doesn't do this on the backs of future workers either, with any sort of two-tier structure."
Under the accord, new workers will only receive 70% of the standard salary for three years. Currently new workers get 85% of the base salary for two years before going up to the full scale. Ford Motor announced a profit for the first quarter of the year but said it does not expect to be in long term profit until 2009.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008
