Ford's executive chairman Bill Ford, Jr. told CNBC this week that former United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger "doesn't get enough credit for helping save Ford."
Automotive News reports the UAW worked closely with the Blue Oval to avoid the fates that befell Chrysler and General Motors in the run-up to the Great Recession, as Ford Jr. explained in a live interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box":
When our times were darkest in the '07, '08, '09 time frame, the UAW helped our industry get back on its feet, helped Ford get back on its feet. Ron Gettelfinger, the former president of the United Auto Workers, doesn't get enough credit for helping save Ford.
The chairman went on to say that in the automaker's darkest hour, he turned to Gettelfinger to "save the Ford Motor Co." For Ford, this meant concessions by the union, including two-tier wages, overtime pay after 40 hours of work, and giving up vacation time. In turn, the Blue Oval lowered labor cost to $58/hour per employee.
When asked why the UAW was turned away from the South — specifically the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. — Ford, Jr. noted the region's attitude toward organized labor in general, as well as how the automaker views its workers in comparison:
Surprised? No, because there's a long history of organizing that didn't go well in the South. I would say this. We've had a great relationship with our workforce. I don't look at them as union and nonunion but as Ford workers. … We have a lot of second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and even sixth-generation workers at Ford in our company.
from The Truth About Cars http://ift.tt/Jh8LjA
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