Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford called on autoworkers to come together to end a monthlong strike that he says could cost the company the ability to invest in the future.
In a rare speech during contract talks in the company’s hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, Ford said high labor costs could limit spending to develop new vehicles and invest in factories. “It’s the absolute lifeblood of our company. And if we lose it, we will lose to the competition. America loses. Many jobs will be lost,” said the great grandson of company founder Henry Ford.
The company, he said, builds more vehicles in America and has more United Auto Workers employees than any company, which has increased its costs in a highly competitive industry.
Ford has 57,000 UAW workers compared with 46,000 at GM and 43,000 at Stellantis. “Many of our competitors moved jobs to Mexico as we added jobs here in the U.S.,” Ford said.
That’s the whole fucking point, you idiot.
This should be the top comment.
deleted by creator
I don’t really see how this ends any other way than them sending most of the jobs to Mexico.
And every company that leaves they should be taxed at a rate to pay the unemployment benefits. The only wayw to prevent companies from leaving is to have the most educated population and to tax all imports at a rate that will pay for social investment programs.
It could also end with bankruptcy. It happened to a lot of us based suppliers.
“This strike is preventing my company from having a future”
Umm. Yes. Yes it is. That’s the entire point you complete idiot.
"You should all know this strike has been highly effective. Which is why you should stop it! Immediately!
Ford C-suite took home $71 million in 2021 (most recent year I could find data). They could give each worker a $1000+ bonus and still walk away with $10 million. Not that $1000 is enough for each worker, but just to illustrate that there is a ton of money floating around, they just don’t want the workers to have it. It’s not future investment they’re worried about (they get massive tax breaks for all these new facilities, and new car designs are all being done by salaried white collar engineers anyway), it’s shareholder profits. Ford doesn’t want to lower their reported annual profits by increasing their worker costs.
Fuck shareholders, and fuck the C-suite for looking out for their interests instead of their workers. They don’t actually produce anything. The workers are the real company asset here, not some Wall Street goon who bought stock.
Not to mention if the company goes over it’s how it’s supposed to be.
If a company isn’t working well it’s union should take it to bankruptcy in hopes that a better companie will fill the niche.
They say that about nature all the time “who care if some species are dying, others will fill it’s space”.
Now I say it about these companies they run
Not at stake enough to meet their demands I suppose
Sounds like the executives should take a pay cut.
Realistically executive salaries probably won’t cover a salary increase across the workforce foe the whole country. Not doing a stock buy back just might though.
Por que no los dos?
The issue is the massive delta they’ve created. If it was 2to1 it wouldn’t be such a sticking point.
Oh, i really hope someone does the math on this one.
Take 100mil off his comp for employees, divide by their 57,000 UAWs listed above, divide by 52 (weeks), then 40 (hrs). Gets you an 0.84$ per hour per employee.
In reality, based on latest filing, CEO’s comp for 2022 was 21 mil so 0.16$ raise per employee if you didn’t pay the ceo.
Ford did 484mil $ in buy backs in 2022. Would give each 4$/hr raise
Seen this a few times. Rarely does the ceo taking less really make much of a dent for people living paycheck to paycheck. Yea 16 cents is better than nothing but also not what these people need.
A lot of that CEO comp is also not in the form of cash, it’s in the form of things like stocks. So a lack of stock buy backs would automatically lower CEO/exec comp as well. That lowered Exec pay wouldn’t go directly to the employees (since it can’t be double counted) but if one of the goals is closing the delta as some have mentioned then no buy backs helps with both.
I would say all of the execs need lower pay. That would give them $52 million which works out to an extra $0.42/hr or about $900 per year. That is a perfectly fine addition to the $4/hr from stock buybacks.
Stock buy backs were a single transaction, not a recurring annual transaction, so not apples to apples on wage.
What they should have done is grant those stocks to their employees. Or their pension fund, whatever mechanism is most fair.
To your point, it spreads thinly over a large work force. But sharing profits is the “right” thing to do.
That’s just the CEO though. What about everyone else near that level?
The only unskilled labor is executives.
Then agree to every single one of their demands.
Saving companies from a striking workforce is incredibly easy.
deleted by creator
Any business that can’t afford to pay its workers a living wage shouldn’t remain in business.
That’s a stunning admission, mighty close to admitting straight to the workers’ faces that they are winning. What stronger sign could there be that holding the line is exactly the right thing to do?
Good. If the business is at stake then the shareholders should have no objections to paying these people what they’re worth and doing so for all factories, not just the factories producing outdated internal combustion engines.
Good. If the business is at stake then the shareholders should have no objections to paying these people what they’re worth and doing so for all factories, not just the factories producing outdated internal combustion engines.
Oh no… anyways.
Fuck executives. Everything they touch goes to shit.
