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.
So?
If you can’t pay your workers a living wage, you don’t fucking deserve to exist as a company.
Cry more, capitalist.
“No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.” - FDR
And just in case there is any confusion, here’s the next line:
If he saw what modern minimum wage has become, he would be disgusted.
The republicans sure have a problem defining decency
Not really, they just define it the same as everything else they don’t like: decency is “woke”
Nah they define it just fine. “how can you be poor if you own a microwave?”
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/fox-cites-ownership-appliances-downplay-hardship-poverty-america
If they’re paying dividends to shareholders, and fatcat salaries to CEO / upper board, whilst their workers need gov topups and assistance to survive… they can get fucked.
It never fails to amaze me that there’s so much focus on ‘benefit scroungers’, whilst a majority of big businesses gain the giant benefit of cheap wages while their workers need gov assistance to get by. There are piggies with their snouts at the top, and they sit on the boards / are CEOs of big companies & multinationals.
It’s the usual backwards conservative shit, much like their stance on illegal immigration. They demonize immigrants from Central America while largely conservative businesses are the ones who hire them and give them a reason to come here. So, as DeSantis found out, they don’t actually want laws to stop it. Same with welfare, like you’re saying… they act like people on public assistance are scum somehow, and like they want to decrease it, but then companies like Walmart are setup to benefit from it by being able to pay their workers less.
Same way with culture war stuff. No business community wants a boycott. People not doing business with you is often times bad for business.
For reference, hourly workers at Ford currently make $78K, and they rejected Ford’s proposed increase to $92K.
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They are holding out for $110K.
and they deserve it. They sacrificed and helped the big 3 stay in business 15 years ago and that kindness was never repaid. I live in Detroit and the anger felt by the workers over this fact is not going anywhere. Time for compensation.
Also for reference, about a decade ago during the last contract negotiation, workers forgoed pay raises in order to help these struggling companies bottom line with the promise that they’d get their raises in the future all while inflation hammered away at their stagnant pay. These workers are owed that money.
So you’re saying your workers are important to you?