DETROIT – Local United Auto Workers leaders from across the country approved a new four-year labor contract with Ford Motor, sending it to their rank-and-file members for final approval.

The deal includes Ford investing more than $6 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations and the creation or retention of 8,500 U.S. jobs. Ford, as first reported by CNBC, also agreed to $9,000 ratification bonuses for full-time workers and $3,500 ratification bonuses for temporary employees.

The UAW's roughly 55,000 rank-and-file members with the automaker are now expected to vote on the proposed contract over the next two weeks.

The accord also includes the closing of an engine plant in Michigan. If the deal is approved, about 600 hourly employees who work at Ford's Romeo Engine factory would be offered jobs at a nearby transmission plant or a buyout package equivalent to ones under the union's recent deal with General Motors.

The UAW, if members approve the deal, would next turn its attention to Fiat Chrysler, the last of the Detroit automakers the union needs to negotiate with for 2019.

The UAW's discussions with Fiat Chrysler are expected to be more contentious than those with Ford amid a federal probe into union corruption that started with the Italian-American automaker. There's also uncertainty about the company's future amid a planned merger with French automaker PSA Group.