The United Auto Workers ratified a four-year contract with Mitsubishi Motors North America on Saturday that calls for employees at a central Illinois plant to take pay cuts in exchange for job security.

Mitsubishi agreed to no involuntary layoffs for the more than 1,200 workers at the Normal plant and guaranteed the factory will stay open through Aug. 30, 2012, when the new contract expires.

Voting concluded Saturday. A UAW Local 2488 spokesman said 54 percent of voting members approved the contract and 46 percent voted against it.

"The bargaining team delivered an agreement that will protect jobs and provide four years of stability for our members and their communities," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a Saturday statement.

The agreement, effective Monday, also includes a two-tiered wage system, retirement offers and medical benefit changes.

Union employees had been working without a contract since a labor agreement expired Sept. 5, after the union unanimously rejected the automaker's latest offer.

"We are extremely pleased with this agreement," Shiro Futaki, Mitsubishi's manufacturing president and CEO, said in a statement Saturday.

Futaki said the contract illustrates how both sides have recognized "the tough issues facing the U.S. automotive industry, and we have worked together toward solving them." Continued...