UAW and Ford Reach Tentative Agreement on Health Care

DETROIT, Dec. 10, 2005 -- UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Gerald Bantom, who directs the UAW National Ford Department, today announced that the UAW and Ford Motor Company have reached a tentative agreement on health care. The tentative agreement is subject to ratification by UAW-Ford active members and court approval.

"Our goal in these discussions with Ford was to provide the best possible health care coverage and the strongest possible long-term protections for all UAW-Ford active workers, retirees and surviving spouses. We believe this tentative agreement achieves that goal," Gettelfinger and Bantom 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. UAW-Ford workers and retirees have long enjoyed some of the best health care coverage of any industrial workers in America, and they will continue to do so under this agreement," the UAW leaders said.

Details of the tentative agreement are being withheld pending a meeting of the UAW-Ford Council, which is being scheduled for next week in Detroit.