CHICAGO - Members of Unifor, a Canadian autoworker union, ratified their new three-year contract with Ford Motor Co. on Sunday, the first deal to be reached since contracts ended for workers of the Big Three US automakers in both the United States and Canada in mid-September.

The deal may set the tone for negotiations in the United States as the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Big Three US automakers entered its 10th day Sunday, the Detroit News reported.

The deal will offer workers wage increase of more than 19 percent over the course of the contract, help employees reach top-scale pay faster, and prevent Ford's three Windsor plants in Canada from closing over the life of the agreement.

Of the 41 plants on strike in the United States, only one is a Ford plant, while the remaining plants are 19 General Motors facilities and 21 Stellantis sites. UAW leaders said earlier it has made progress in talks with Ford.

Ford has so far offered to the union the restoration of the cost-of-living adjustment formula autoworkers gave up more than a decade ago; a 20-percent wage increase over the life of the contract; the right to strike over plant closures; the elimination of a wage tier under which workers at components plants made less than those at assembly plants; guaranteed income security with healthcare for up to two years in the event of an indefinite layoff; an enhanced profit-sharing formula; and the immediate conversion of all temporary workers to full-time permanent status.

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