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Ever wondered what a UAW contract looks like? Here is all 22 pounds of it (in this case, Ford’s 2,215 page 2007 master contract; Coke can is for scale and because I was thirsty). I’ll tell you this much, those 2,215 pages don’t include much regarding efficiency and competitiveness. What you’ll find are hundreds of rules, regulations, and letters of understanding that have hamstrung the auto companies for years. If you’d like to read the contracts for yourself, here they are: Ford’s 2007 Contract:

We're in the City of Angels this week to drive a bunch of new Fords, including the new 2010 Mustang and Fusion. We started off Monday afternoon with a mileage challenge in the new 2010 Fusion Hybrid.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says a second shift will start making F-150 pickups at the automaker's Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo. That shift of about 1,000 workers had been switched to production of the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner small SUVs this summer. Wednesday's announcement comes after Ford announced in October that it planned to restore a third shift at its other F-150 plant in Dearborn, Mich. Those workers had been laid off earlier this year as the automaker cut production. But gas prices are now less than half what they were this summer,...

Ford Motor Co. plans to tell Congress it is retooling itself to build small fuel-efficient cars and break from the strategy of focusing mainly on large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, and will cut the compensation of Chief Executive Alan Mulally, as part of its bid to win support for a federal bailout of the Big Three automakers, a person familiar with the matter said. Ford and General Motors Corp. directors were meeting separately Monday to approve the viability plans the two automakers will submit to Congress today as part of a second appeal for $25 billion in low-cost loans...

Ford retirees worry about future BY ANDREA HOLECEK holecek@nwitimes.com | Friday, November 28, 2008 | No comments posted. Local Ford Motor Co. retirees say they are worried about the fate of U.S. auto makers and how the industry's problems could affect their comfortable retirements. "I'm very much concerned," said Charles Cupp, 50, of Morocco, who retired in 2007. "It's very concerning for every one of the retirees I've talked to. It seems like the first place they always cut is on retirees." Cupp, who worked as an hourly employee at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant for 30 years, and other...

Ford production off shore.

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. may sell its fleet of five corporate jets after top executives of the three Detroit automakers were harshly criticized by members of Congress this week for their travel expenses. In a statement issued Friday, Ford (F, Fortune 500) said it is exploring all options for the fleet, which it said has been reduced from nine in 2005. "Ford's top priority is to continue making progress on our transformation plan, and we do not want anything to distract us," spokesman Mark Truby said in a statement. "We are exploring all cost-effective solutions for our air...

Testimony of Alan R. Mulally Senate Banking Committee November 18, 2008 Thank you Mr. Chairman, Senator Shelby and members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today representing Ford Motor Company as you consider issues that are absolutely critical to this venerable American company and to the nation.

Well, we have to say we saw this coming. Ford has officially sold off approximately 20% of its stake in Mazda. The sale reduces Ford's share from a controlling 33.4% interest to just over 13% and puts about $540 million into the Dearborn coffers, based on a sale price figured at Mazda's closing value Tuesday. The cash infusion will certainly help Ford's bottom line in these rough economic times, and the fact that the shares are being sold back to Mazda (7 percent) and to about 20 of its strategic partners means that Ford's remaining stake will still give it...

As harsh as it sounds, bankruptcy court may be the best option for the Detroit Three. It looks less likely now that the Detroit Three will get that extra helping of pork that they want to go with their turkey of a bailout plan, but congressional Democrats still want to serve it up. The Senate will take up a second $25 billion bailout bill on Monday. Earlier this fall, Congress gave General Motors Corp., Chrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. $25 billion in low-interest government loans aimed at helping them retool their plants to build more fuel-efficient cars. But the...

Insurers pull cover from GM and Ford suppliers By Kiran Stacey, John Reed and Jonathan Guthrie Published: November 14 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 14 2008 02:00 Troubled US carmakers General Motors and Ford Motor have been given a potentially devastating vote of no confidence by three big European credit insurers, which have removed cover from their suppliers. The withdrawal of credit insurance - which covers suppliers against the risk of the car companies' failing - has previously hastened the demise of a string of European companies, with suppliers to retailers and construction companies finding cover increasingly hard to...

BERLIN: US automaker Ford has asked Berlin for aid but the government is divided on how to help Germany's key but troubled industrial sector. After General Motors' German subsidiary Opel, a second US group implanted in Germany has thus turned to Chancellor Angela Merkel for aid. "We sent a letter on the same day as Opel," a Ford spokesman told the Sueddeutsche Zeiting newspaper on Wednesday. Both auto makers have pressed the government for tax measures that would boost the sale of new cars, but neither has received a response for the time being, the report said. The head of...

Remember when Democrats lamented the growing budget deficit and spoke of the burden our children and grandchildren would face if we didn't put our fiscal house in order? That was when Republicans ran the federal government and Democrats opposed tax cuts. Now that Democrats are about to be in charge, concern about the deficit has disappeared and spending plans proliferate, even though the national debt passed $10 trillion in September and we added another $500 billion last month. The latest, but by no means the last supplicant at the public trough, is the auto industry, which wants a bailout to...

If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs. Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe....

DETROIT -- The largest U.S. auto makers posted staggering losses on Friday, blaming a worsening global economic slowdown and linking their precarious fates to the hope of a government rescue. General Motors Corp. reported a net loss of $2.54 billion or $4.45 a share, for the third quarter, including special items. That compares with a net loss of $42.5 billion or $75.12 a share, in the third quarter last year. Ford Motor Co. reported a third-quarter net loss of $129 million, or six cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $380 million, or 19 cents a share. But...

Some analysts suggest failure may not be such a bad thing for Detroit's Big Three. Others, especially Michigan politicians, warn of calamity. Are the Big Three worth saving? The U.S. auto industry's downward spiral has accelerated dramatically in recent weeks. In a desperate bid for solvency, General Motors Corp. is seeking a merger with Chrysler. Chrysler has talked with Renault and Nissan about partnerships. And now Ford Motor Co., GM and Chrysler -- backed by Michigan lawmakers -- are lobbying Washington to give them cash, implying that failure to provide a bailout could doom the industry to bankruptcy. Congress last...

With little fanfare, a new car factory opened in America earlier this month. The new Honda assembly plant in Greensburg, Ind., will produce 200,000 compact Civic models annually after reaching full capacity late next year. The contrast couldn't be starker between Detroit's woes and the continuing U.S. expansion of Japanese, German and Korean car companies -- in both market share and manufacturing capacity. There are two American auto industries, one generally thriving and the other drastically shrinking. The shrinking is accelerating dramatically. Just yesterday Chrysler said it would ax 25% of its white-collar employees, about 5,000 people, next month. General...

We know that history holds many surprises. One doesn't expect to learn more about the secret history of of the Gulag than we already know from both Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Acrcipelago" and Anne Applebaum's "Gulag: A history." This feat, however, is exactly what author Tim Tzouliadis has accomplished: the previously unknown story of the thousands of Americans who, during the Depression, sought employment and a better future in the "worker's paradise" built by the Bolsheviks. All kinds of Americans joined the exodus. Some of them were Communists or fellow-travelors but the majority were average Americans - skilled workers promised paid passage,...

Why do corporations tend to be greedy? I suspect it's because their executives are paid millions and millions to maximize profits, minimize salaries and slash benefits that cut into the bottom line. Sometimes this can be taken to comic-opera extremes, as when the (now) convicted thief David Radler was stealing millions from the Sun-Times and actually turned off the escalators to save on electricity. I guess that helps explain why the Ford Motor Co., followed by Chrysler, stole the secret of the intermittent windshield wiper from a little guy named Robert Kearns. Why bother? Why not just pay the guy...

My late father and I had frequent and sometimes heated discussions about the state of the auto industry during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was the smart alec at the dinner table and in the passenger seat on the way home from high school who came down on the side of “exploited, alienated” labor. Dad, while intensely loyal to American-made goods — he had difficulty convincing himself that buying a used Toyota would not harm U.S. industry — warned that gold-plated labor agreements and management arrogance would ultimately bankrupt the Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler). He...