UAW hourly workers ratify Ford labor deal

(Reuters) - Hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers ratified a proposed labor deal with Ford Motor Co, the union said on Wednesday.

Sixty-three percent, or 26,274, of the UAW-represented workers at Ford voted to approve the four-year agreement, the UAW said.

The proposed deal gives Ford workers -- 41,000 of them unionized -- at least $16,000 in bonuses, including a $6,000 signing bonus.

Ratification of the Ford deal would leave Chrysler Group LLC, which is controlled and majority owned by Italian automaker Fiat SpA, as the last of the Detroit automakers with a labor deal to ratify.

UAW workers at Chrysler, the weakest financially of the Detroit automakers, are voting on their tentative pact through October 26. They are guaranteed much less, including a signing bonus of $1,750.

UAW workers at General Motors Co ratified their deal in late September.

(Reporting Ben Klayman in Detroit, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)