Bill Ford, the executive chair of Ford Motor Company, made his first public comments since negotiations began with the United Auto Workers union and the Big Three automakers. He called on the UAW to “stop this now,” and bring an end to talks.
Ford, who has been involved in every contract negotiation with the UAW since 1982 said Monday the company is at a crossroads with the UAW and a strong manufacturing base is critical to US national security and essential to the future of US auto manufacturing.
“The UAW’s leaders have called us the enemy in these negotiations. But I will never consider our employees as enemies,” Ford said Monday at Ford’s Rogue Center in Dearborn, Michigan. “This should not be Ford versus the UAW. It should be Ford and the UAW vs. Toyota and Honda, Tesla and all the Chinese companies that want to enter our home market.”
On Wednesday, the UAW struck Ford’s most profitable plant, Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, after the union said Ford failed to provide a new economic offer. Ford (F) says negotiations last week centered on battery plants and retirement security, and that the company had reached its financial offer limit.
“Toyota, Honda, Tesla and others are loving this strike because they know the longer it goes on, the better it is for them. They will win and all of us will lose,” said Ford.
Ford said the company made a record offer to the UAW, and the strike against Kentucky Truck Plant harms tens of thousands of Americans including dealers, workers and suppliers. He stated any additional expanded strikes will cripple the supply chain.
“The supply base is very fragile and will start collapsing with an expanded strike,” he said.
More than 16,600 Ford employees on strike, resulting in 2,480 layoffs, the company noted.
On Friday UAW President Shawn Fain warned of future targeted strikes at any time. “We are prepared at any time to call on more locals to stand up and walk out,” Fain said in a livestream update on negotiations. He later added: “We changed the rules. Now there is only one rule — pony up.”
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