The United Auto Workers union said Saturday it agreed to higher payments for health care for hourly employees at Ford Motor Co. in a move to help stem the automaker’s growing losses in North America.
The tentative agreement, still subject to ratification by rank-and-file members of the UAW at Ford, was widely expected following an October deal between the union and General Motors Corp. aimed at slashing GM’s multibillion-dollar annual health-care costs.
Details of the UAW-Ford agreement were being withheld pending a union meeting in Detroit next week, the UAW said.
“Like the UAW-GM health care agreement, this tentative agreement asks every UAW member, active and retired, to make sacrifices so that everyone can continue to receive excellent health care coverage today and in the future,” the union said in a statement.
A Ford spokesman could not be reached for immediate comment.
