SALINE, Mich. -- Workers at a Faurecia parts plant here ended a strike after nine hours when the UAW and the company announced a tentative contract agreement.
The factory, which employs 1,900 members of UAW Local 892, supplies interior parts to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford Motor Co. and Tesla Inc., the union said.
Workers were told to report for the afternoon shift at 3 p.m. EDT. The UAW scheduled a town hall meeting with members in Saline, about 45 miles west of Detroit, Friday morning. Workers were told they will receive terms of the agreement on Monday and a ratification vote would take place later next week.
Pickets were out in force earlier Friday, stationed at every plant entrance, cheering and chanting "8-9-2" while car horns blared. Vehicles were allowed to come and go through the main gate with no altercations. There was a strong security presence and local police were standing by.
Workers were eager to hear about terms of the tentative deal.
“We haven’t seen anything yet,” a production operator on the Ford line said. “They’re keeping us all out of the loop. All they’re saying is they came to a tentative agreement and report back to work. It’s wrong for us to have to report back when we don’t know what’s going on."
Before the agreement was reached, numerous workers interviewed on the picket line said the strike was about working conditions at the plant as much as it was about wages and benefits.
"We're working hard but they are treating us like dogs," said Goran Stankovic, who works on a line that supplies consoles to the Ford Mustang. He said he's been working at the plant since 2012. "This plant is making $1 billion a year (in revenue) and there's no profit sharing. It's all about quantity, not quality. It's all about the numbers."
Dwayne Harris, a rank-and-file member for five years, said the plant is turning over workers at a rapid pace. "Between 2,000 and 5,000 people work here every year," he said while picketing with fellow workers.
Neither the UAW nor Faurecia would discuss terms of the new agreement.
The 2015 four-year contract was extended for three weeks on June 1 by company and union officials.