Eff 'em...wouldn't buy another Ford if they are the only car maker left.
Posted on 02/16/2024 8:07:51 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Last fall’s contentious United Auto Workers’ strike changed Ford’s relationship with the union to the point where it will “think carefully” about where it builds future vehicles, Ford’s top executive said Thursday.
CEO Jim Farley told the Wolfe Research Global Auto Conference in New York that the company always took pride in its relationship with the UAW, having avoided strikes since the 1970s.
But last year, Ford’s highly profitable factory in Louisville, Kentucky, was the first truck plant that the UAW shut down with a strike.
Farley said as the company looks at the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles, “we have to think carefully about our (manufacturing) footprint.”
Ford, Farley said, decided to build all of its highly profitable big pickup trucks in the U.S., and by far has the most union members — 57,000 — of any Detroit automaker. This came at a higher cost than competitors, who went through bankruptcy and built truck plants in Mexico, he said. But Ford thought it was the “right kind of cost,” Farley said.
“Our reliance on the UAW turned out to be we were the first truck plant to be shut down,” Farley told the conference. “Really our relationship has changed. It’s been a watershed moment for the company. Does this have business impact? Yes.”
In a statement, union President Shawn Fain said Ford should stay focused on building the best auto industry, not on a race to lower wages.
“Maybe Ford doesn’t need to move factories to find the cheapest labor on Earth,” he said. “Maybe it needs to recommit to American workers and find a CEO who’s interested in the future of this country’s auto industry,” Fain said.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Eff 'em...wouldn't buy another Ford if they are the only car maker left.
It’s all fun and games until the pink slips start hitting the mailbox.
Better Idea...
Build them in the USA.
Using robots and expert software - also made in the USA.
“ Workers, union or otherwise, deserve a bigger slice of the pie.”
Profits are for owners. If workers want a bigger piece of the pie they should invest in their employer’s stock and become owners.
As the number of retirees grows over time and the number of active workers declines due to attrition and automation, the retirees eventually outnumber the active workers. Once this happens, the union’s political agenda ends up being completely at odds with not only the business fortunes of the industry, but with the personal interests of the working members as well.
The UAW leadership would be perfectly fine with a scenario where Ford doesn’t employ a single UAW member but is forced to make generous contributions to the UAW pension system.
Didn’t Trump convince them not to build in Mexico? Or a different automaker?
Ford taught the law a lesson with the Lorain facility.
I guess that the uaw forgot....
Uaw...
Darn autocorrect
> Management as a whole is usually way overpaid… <
Yep. In the old days a CEO made something like 40 times the salary of the average worker at his company. In 2022, Ford CEO Farley made $22,000,000. Using the 40 rule, each Ford employee should be making $550,000.
So either the Ford workers are greatly underpaid or the CEO is greatly overpaid. It’s the latter, of course.
Some argue that’s it’s just freedom in action. Ford can pay the CEO whatever they want. Well, sure. Then the union can ask for whatever it want.
Out of control greed is a terrible thing. Both the executives and the unions are infected by it, perhaps fatally.
I will not buy any vehicle built by the UAW.
Ok. Start a car company and give them one.
Like 1984 atlas shrugged wasn’t supposed to be non-fiction
Thank you for the added insight. Never knew that. As the elder retirees leave the scene(one way or another)...the unions may have to be more realistic instead of so 1930’s.
I would guess with automation and computer guided robots, cars and car parts may assembled and inspected in smaller regional plants which would be too small to be unionized. Then the requisite parts all shipped to a final assembly and inspection plant. All plants too small for unionization and easily relocated.
By divulging what should have been classified as top secret, Farley has invited quality sabotage.
The UAW is a dangerous enemy living in his house
It used to be stockholders and Board of Directors kept CEO salaries in line.
But as long as there are record profits and stock prices, they don’t care.
The average working family works paycheck-to-paycheck and you believe that if they pour the few discretionary dollars they squirrel away every month into a stock account that that will make a meaningful difference in their way of life?
Ford’s average salary is currently $66,872 per year. Ford’s CEO made $21 million in 2022. In the past three years Ford’s stock has gone sideways.
I don’t have a clue but my guess is many of the parts are
foreign made thus assembly is the main cost.
....”...Farley said as the company looks at the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles, “we have to think carefully about our (manufacturing) footprint.”..
I thought I read here on FR some time ago that Ford was losing some $36,000 or some large sum of money on every electric F-150 Lightning it made/sold...and the company is transitioning to EVs...? something does not make sense....
Is there a financial or moral basis for the 40x figure?
> Is there a financial or moral basis for the 40x figure? <
Good question. I’ve read that it was self-restraint on the part of the CEO’s. So I guess there was a moral basis.
But perhaps dfwgator‘s explanation is better (post #35).
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