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.
Ford Motor Co.'s second-quarter profit more than tripled to $1.92 billion versus a year ago (source)
Revenue rose 12% to $44.95 billionKinda hard to drum up sympathy for the company when it’s raking in almost $2 billion in profit per quarter. Yes, Ford is burning about $1billon per quarter on EVs right now. That’s not something the workers should be financing. That’s money the company is investing to be viable in the future. That sucks for the shareholders; but, they are the ones who will reap any benefits of that investment and they should be the ones eating the cost.
they are the ones who will reap any benefits of that investment and they should be the ones eating the cost.
They seem to have forgotten that “The investor takes the risk”, sometimes its not all fst dividends.
Sounds like the executives should take a pay cut.
Realistically executive salaries probably won’t cover a salary increase across the workforce foe the whole country. Not doing a stock buy back just might though.
Oh, i really hope someone does the math on this one.
Take 100mil off his comp for employees, divide by their 57,000 UAWs listed above, divide by 52 (weeks), then 40 (hrs). Gets you an 0.84$ 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.
That’s just the CEO though. What about everyone else near that level?
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.
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.
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.
Sounds like a bad business strategy is the real problem.
I mean if you can’t afford to innovate and pay your staff a livable wage then you don’t have a sound business model.
Y’know, he could always just AGREE TO THEIR TERMS! The company being at stake is the entire point of unionizing.
I also think he should, but he says that if he did, the company would lose to competition.
He says that. But he also just said that stupid thing in the headline, so …
Then their business model needs some TLC. Those suits need to earn their high wages snd come up with better plans.
That argument is uncompelling when the union is striking their competition as well.
The competition is in other countries. I do agree with the strike.
“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!
Sounds like Bill needs to pull himself up by his bootstraps.
Ford spent almost $500 million on stock buybacks in 2022. GM spent around $3 billion. Maybe priorities needs to be adjusted.
Oh boohoo Bill.
But he also said Ford is paying CEO Jim Farley $21 million per year when starting pay for Ford factory workers is up only about $3 per hour from when he started with the company 31 years ago.
Ford’s offer of a 23% general wage increase barely covers inflation over the last three or four years, said Applebee, 59.
That is fucking insane. $3 per hour wage increase in 31 years?!
Starting pay. A lot of unions have fucked new people to get better deals for people with longer tenure. Someone who started 30 years ago is already eligible for full retirement and got way more than $3/hour in raises.
Lmao, talk to any former ford employee and they’ll probably show the middle finger to the entire board if they could.
They run the layoff cycle literally every other year to cut costs whenever sales even hint at slowing down, all while paying CEOs massive money.
“Yeah we moved to mexico less than our competitors so that makes us better”
Ford does not give a shit if an employee dies. Sucks doesn’t it?
Boo hoo rich guy, take care of your fucking employees
Sounds to me like he has plenty of power to end the strike, he can see the concrete requirements from the workers. Grant them, in full, strike ends, company safe. Sounds simple Mr. 21 Million plus perks.
Any business that can’t afford to pay its workers a living wage shouldn’t remain in business.
Well then Ford make a decision. Do you want a company or not, because you can absolutely remain profitable whilst paying your employees properly. Without employees to do the labor to make the products you sell you have nothing, so it seems like the best course of action would be to make sure the folks ensuring your business has product to sell should be properly motivated to continue to want to provide their time and labor. Their time is the same as the Csuite’s time, you cannot get it back, so they deserve to get paid properly.
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
