Re: Ford CEO says company will rethink where it builds vehicles after last year's autoworkers strike

[Lol at UAW leeches!]

On 15 Mar 2022, Molly Bolt <mollyth...@gmail.com> posted some
news:3a4e13e3-5b85-42c5...@googlegroups.com:

> So much for the UAW. Stick those huge union "wins" up your asses you
> ignorant unskilled pieces of shit assembly workers.

DETROIT (AP) — 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.

Asked about Farley's comments, White House press secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden believes in making goods and
creating jobs in the U.S. “We're going to do everything we can to make
sure that continues,” she said.

Biden, she said, believes that workers have the right to collective
bargaining to get better wages and benefits like the UAW did. “That is
something that the president is always going to speak for and is going
to stand up for” she said.

The UAW made strong wage gains after a six-week strike at selected
plants run by Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis. Top-scale
factory workers won 33% raises in a contract that runs through April of
2028, taking their top wage to around $42 per hour.

High manufacturing costs are among the reasons why Ford has a $7 billion
annual cost disadvantage to competitors, Farley has said. He told the
conference that Ford is making progress on cutting those costs with
cultural and structural changes at the company.

It expects to take out $2 billion worth of costs this year, and Farley
said he thinks cuts in manufacturing costs will offset the cost of the
UAW contract. Ford has said the contract would add $900 to the cost of a
vehicle by the time it reaches full effect.

Ford has shifted its electric vehicle strategy to concentrate on
smaller, lower priced EVs and work vehicles such as pickup trucks and
full-size vans, Farley said. Any EV larger than a Ford Escape small SUV
“better be really functional or a work vehicle.”

A small team within the company is developing the underpinnings of a
less costly smaller vehicle, which Farley said would be profitable
because of U.S. federal tax credits as high as $7,500 per vehicle.

He gave no time frame for the small EV to come out, but said Ford's next
generation of electric vehicles would come in the 2025 through 2027 time
frame.

His comments about the union raise questions about whether the new small
EV would be built in Mexico, which has lower labor costs. Vehicles built
in North America are still eligible for the U.S. tax credit.

Farley also sees EV battery prices coming down with more competition.
The company, he said, may go with a common cylinder-shaped cell to
leverage purchasing and get better prices. He also said Ford might do
that with another automaker.

Ford’s Model e, the electric vehicle unit, lost nearly $5 billion before
taxes last year. Farley wouldn't give a date for it to break even, but
said any new EV built by the company has to make money within 12 months
of its release.

The company still posted net income of $4.3 billion due largely to big
profits from its Pro commercial vehicle unit and Ford Blue, the internal
combustion division.

Farley said Ford and others will have trouble competing on EVs with
Chinese automakers, who have gone from no EV market share in Europe two
years ago to 10% of the market now.

Chinese auto giant BYD 's Seagull small electric vehicle, he said, has
about $9,000 in material costs, and it will probably cost the company
another $2,000 to meet crash test standards, for a total of around
$11,000. It has a range of about 150 miles in cold weather, “not a
fantastic vehicle, but pretty damn good.”

Ford's lowest-priced U.S. EV is the Mustang Mach e, which starts around
$43,000.

Shares of Ford closed Thursday up 2.4%.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-ceo-says-company-rethink-153703454.ht
ml

[68g.1509]

Labor unions do have a habit of killing their golden goose.