Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford is scheduled to give a rare speech on Monday about the future of U.S. manufacturing as the company is locked in a standoff with striking autoworkers.
The speech, delivered near the company’s massive pickup truck plant in Ford’s hometown of Dearborn, Miss., was expected to resolve a month-long strike by members of the United Auto Workers union.
Last week, 8,700 union members went on strike at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, the largest and most profitable Ford plant in the world.
After the strike ended, a company executive said on a conference call with reporters that Ford had reached the limit of how much it was willing to spend to end the strike.
Ford announced the speech with brief remarks earlier Monday.
Bill Ford may appeal to workers to let them know the company can’t afford high labor costs and still compete with Tesla and other non-union automakers with factories in the United States.
The speech comes as the industry is in the midst of a historic and expensive shift from internal combustion engine cars to electric vehicles.
UAW President Shawn Fain said Ford and crosstown rivals General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis are making billions of dollars and workers deserve a piece of the pie. He said workers should be rewarded for sacrificing overall pay raises, cost-of-living adjustments and agreeing to lower pay levels to keep the company afloat during the Great Recession.
Unions begin strikes against target factories September 15, after the contract with the company expires. It started with one assembly plant for each company and later expanded to 38 parts warehouses for General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis. The UAW later added an assembly plant at General Motors and Ford Motor Co.
Last Wednesday, Fein made the surprise announcement that the union There will be a strike at a Kentucky factorywhich makes the Super Duty pickup truck and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs.
About 34,000 of the 146,000 employees of the three automakers’ unions are on strike.
Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the company’s internal-combustion business unit, told reporters on Thursday that Ford had gone to great lengths to secure the current offer.
The apparent widening of labor divisions suggests Ford and the union could be headed for a lengthy strike that could cost the company and workers billions of dollars.
Fein said Wednesday that Ford has been telling UAW negotiators for nearly two weeks that it would make another counteroffer on economic issues. But Fein said the company did not increase its previous offer during a meeting held by the union. “Ford has not received the message” of bargaining for a fair contract, Fein said in announcing the strike for 8,700 workers at the company’s Louisville, Kentucky, truck plant.
“We’ve been very patient with the company on this,” he said in the video. “They didn’t meet expectations, they didn’t even come to the negotiating table.”
Galhotra called Ford’s offer “very positive” and said Ford never indicated to the union that it would increase its offer.
“We are very aware that we have reached the limit,” he said on a conference call with reporters. “We risk investing in our business and our ability to grow profitably. Profitably growing is in the best interest of everyone at Ford.”
The company has a certain amount of capital but is willing to move dollars in a way that suits the union’s needs, he said, adding that he still thinks a deal is possible.
The union said overall wages at Ford have risen 23% in four years and that cost-of-living increases have resumed. The ratio between GM and Stellantis is 20%. But none were tall enough, Fein said.
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