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(AP) -- Despite a previously reported lower amount of jobs, The New York Times reports Ford Motor Company will now add 12,000 jobs and invest $6.2 billion in U.S. plants in a new four-year contract with the United Auto Workers.

The deal is expected to swap annual pay raises for profit sharing checks and will include commitments from Ford for thousands of new union jobs. Local union leaders from around the nation met Tuesday morning in Detroit to vote to recommend the deal to Ford's 41,000 union members.

Ford says most workers can expect $12,000 bonuses, entry-level wages to increase by several dollars an hour and for work to return to the United States from other countries.

Company Vice President of Manufacturing John Fleming says that most of the new hires will be at an entry-level wage, which will cut the company's labor costs.

"It happened in the early hours of this morning," said John Fleming, Ford's executive vice president of global manufacturing of the agreement, according to the Detroit Free Press. "Many of them are going to be new, some of them are going to be for people we have already retained," Fleming said of the jobs.

The four-year deal was reached after eight straight days of bargaining. Union leaders are expected to release further details of the contract later Tuesday. Union workers are likely to vote on it next week.

Fleming would not give details about where the new jobs would go. He said the jobs are in addition to the 7,000 new positions that Ford announced earlier this year.

According to USA Today, if UAW workers ratify a deal that keeps Ford competitive, the automaker could see its credit rating boosted, just as GM's was following the ratification of its new labor contract.

Could Ford's good news restore Americans' faith in the auto industry and job creation, or is there still a long way to go? Sound off below...

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