Today, as The New York Times reports, Ford not only reached a four-year agreement with the United Auto Workers union, but "agreed to add 12,000 jobs and invest $6.2 billion in its United States plants." The new employees will reportedly be hired by 2012, and some of those 12,000 jobs had already been announced. But what types of jobs will be added? When General Motors came to a tentative agreement with the auto workers in September, Bloomberg News reported that the union "said the agreement includes improved health care and enhanced profit sharing." With Ford, executive John Fleming gave these details, as the Times relays:

He said nearly all of the new jobs will pay entry-level wages, which are currently about half as much as veteran workers earn. He said the entry-level pay scale would increase to be roughly on par with General Motors, which gave entry-level workers an hourly raise of $2 to $3 in a deal ratified last week, but he declined to give specific figures.

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Erik Hayden