Factory workers on strike at a Ford assembly line in Michigan voted Thursday to approve a new contract.

The United Auto Workers reached a deal with Ford Motor Co. last week, putting an end to a strike that began at the plant September 15.

What You Need To Know

  • 81% of United Auto Workers members at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Assembly Plant voted to approve a new contract Thursday

  • Last week, the UAW and Ford negotiated a new contract that included 25% wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments and annual bonuses to retirees, among other benefits

  • Stellantis and General Motors have negotiated similar contracts with the UAW

  • It is unclear when auto workers with General Motors and Stellantis will vote to ratify their new contracts

Eighty-one percent of the 3,300 union members at the company’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., approved the deal, according to the Associated Press.

The factory was among the first to be shut down by the UAW’s stand-up strike, after the union's previous four-year contract expired in mid September. The new contract, which includes a 25% wage increase over 4-1/2 years, cost-of-living adjustments, annual bonuses to retirees and other benefits, provides “more value for our members in each individual year of this agreement than the entirety of the 2009 agreement,” UAW vice president Chuck Browning said last week.

Ford and UAW announced an end to the almost six-week-old strike October 25, setting the stage for deals with Stellantis last Sunday and General Motors on Monday. All three companies offered UAW roughly the same terms, including 25% pay raises, a substantial portion of which take effect once the contract vote is ratified.

Votes among Ford’s unionized workers will continue until November 17. Dates for the votes among GM and Stellantis UAW workers are not clear.

About 46,000 of the UAW’s 146,000 members had been striking assembly plants and parts distribution centers across the country before the deals were reached. The strike cost Ford $1.3 billion, the company said last week. Stellantis said this week it lost $3.2 billion, while GM took a hit of $800 million.