UAW deal OK'd with Ford now faces rank and file

The United Automobile Workers' Ford Council approved the union's 30-month, billion-dollar deal with the company by a 132-to-12 vote, Monitor correspondent Ed Townsend reports. Some 165,000 rank-and-file Ford unionists (one-third laid off) will vote next week on the tentative agreement.

If ratified, the new contract will go into effect March 1. Workers will not take pay cuts, but will forgo annual wage increases and six quarterly cost-of-living adjustments.