US UAW unions at Ford, Stellantis approve contracts

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US union members at Ford and Stellantis approved new labor contracts, according to vote tallies published on Friday.

“It is good news that the union ratified the contract,” said Ramesh Iyer, director, engineering plastics at Chemical Data (CDI).  “The impact was minimized as the high-volume vehicle production were shut down only for a couple of weeks.”

The members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) unions join those at General Motors (GM), who approved the contract earlier.

The tallies are calculated by adding up the votes of each local at the individual plants. Although some locals rejected the contracts, these votes were more than offset by those that approved them.

The tally at Stellantis is 69.6% in favor of the contract and 30.4% against. The tally at Ford is 68.2% in favor and 31.8% against.

The Big Three automakers – Ford, GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis – reached tentative agreements late last month with the union leadership to end the six-week strike. The members of the union later voted on those agreements.

IMPACT ON CHEMICALS
The petrochemical industry is closely monitoring the situation as the auto and truck sector is a major consumer of petrochemicals that make up more than one-third of the raw material costs of an average vehicle.

US motor vehicle and parts output fell by 10% month on month in October because of the UAW strikes against the Detroit Big Three automakers, according to the US Federal Reserve on Thursday.

The automotive sector drives demand for chemicals such as polypropylene (PP), along with nylon, polystyrene (PS), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), polyurethane (PU), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA).

Additional reporting by Stefan Baumgarten

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Thumbnail shows automobiles like those made by Ford and Stellantis. Image by Shutterstock.