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.

  • athos77@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    First, let’s talk about stock buybacks, government bailouts, pandemic assistance money, and record profits, all of which happened after workers accepted reduced pay and reduced benefits to help “make the company profitable again”.

      • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Profit also means money isn’t being used for future investment into the company. Funny, they weren’t complaining about these lack of investments just a year or two ago when cars were getting marked up and selling $10k+ above MSRP.

    • ANGRY_MAPLE
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      1 year ago

      Fuckin’ aholes are also still hitting new profit records. They can cry me a river.

      Their company wouldn’t exist without the hard workers, as there would be nothing to sell.

      In case someone relevant sees this, this might be a great way for Ford’s competitors to rope in skilled, experienced employees. I’m sure that many employees are thinking about other places after seeing this “call to end the strike”. I know I would be.

      What an embarrassing thing to say to your staff. What an embarrassing thing to say publicly. These people must be more detached from reality than I thought.