Ford starts early talks with UAW; concessions needed

[nadepalma]

SOURCE:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...01040419/1148/

Ford starts early talks with UAW
Mulally: Painful concessions needed from union; 'The only thing I care about is the competitiveness of Ford.'
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News



Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally is holding weekly meetings with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger in the run up to this year's watershed contract negotiations. He praised the labor leader for his willingness to work with Ford, but said painful concessions will be needed from the union if his company is to compete against foreign rivals.

"The automotive industry in the United States is very robust. The issue here is three automobile companies in Detroit," Mulally said during a wide-ranging discussion with journalists Wednesday night. To address that issue, Ford needs to become competitive in wages, benefits, work rules, flexible manufacturing and plant capacity. "I respect the union as an institution. (But) the only thing I care about is the competitiveness of Ford."

And Mulally stressed that a competitive Ford is good for the union, too.

"Ron Gettelfinger absolutely understands the situation we're in I don't know of anybody that cares more about Ford than Ron Gettelfinger," Mulally said. "On everything that we've asked him to do to help us restructure, he's supported us."

The auto talks will begin this summer and will wrap up in September when the current four-year contract expires.

Gettelfinger is not the only person Mulally has been meeting with lately. On Wednesday, he confirmed that he and Ford Americas President Mark Fields flew to Tokyo last month for a two-hour meeting with Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho.

"We talked about advanced technology, we talked about fuel efficiency, we talked about free trade, we talked about the regulatory environment, we talked about areas where we could continue to work together for the good of the industry," Mulally said, though he would not say if any agreements had been reached between the companies.

Mulally said he has also held meetings with senior executives from General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrylser AG and BMW AG, and hopes to hold talks with the leaders of other auto manufacturers soon.

"I really want to connect with each of the players in the industry, and I want to do it quickly," Mulally said. "We have so many things in common that we're dealing with."

Also on hand Wednesday night was Ford's new global product development czar, Derrick Kuzak.

Mulally, who referred to Kuzak as "our hero," tapped him to lead the consolidation of Ford's disparate product development arms in North America, Europe and Asia. Kuzak told The Detroit News that he held his first meeting with his new team Wednesday morning.

In a memo distributed to Ford employees later Wednesday and obtained by The News, Mullaly outlined his new global structure for vehicle development.

Rather than a loose collection of regional operation units, Mulally has established three new groups to oversee the process of bringing vehicles from sketch pad to sheet metal. The new divisions are:

Product planning and strategy. The group will be responsible for developing a global product plan for the Ford brand, simplify vehicle platforms and powertrains and allocate spending across the Ford product line-up. An executive director in charge of the group will be named later.

Product development finance: The team's job will be to make sure Ford is getting the most bang for its product development buck. It will be led by David Prystash, Ford's controller for global product development.

Core engineering. The division's goal will be to simplify Ford's parts and subsystems through greater sharing and reuse of common designs. Part of its mission will be to ensure vehicles have a "consistent feel and sound that is unmistakably Ford," the memo said.

During his meeting with reporters, Mulally said he is pleased with the progress Ford is making, adding that he is more optimistic about the future than he was when he was hired in September.

But he and other Ford executives said Wednesday that there is still a lot more work to do.

"Despite the numbers, (2006) was a year of incremental progress for us," Fields said. "It's like building a house. We built the foundation last year. But you don't see the house. You see a hole."

However, Fields acknowledged that Ford failed to meet its stated goal of slowing its market share decline in 2006.

Mulally also said:

Ford's sale of its Aston Martin brand will be completed "this year."

The company is still evaluating its brand portfolio and would not rule out a sale of Jaguar, though he said the division is showing tremendous improvement.

He wants to create a single, global Ford brand that uses common platforms with minor variations to meet consumer needs worldwide.

[nadepalma]

Mulally also said:

Ford's sale of its Aston Martin brand will be completed "this year."

The company is still evaluating its brand portfolio and would not rule out a sale of Jaguar, though he said the division is showing tremendous improvement.

He wants to create a single, global Ford brand that uses common platforms with minor variations to meet consumer needs worldwide.

This kinda makes me wonder if Aston is just the first step. Keeping Jag now makes a great deal of sense now that the XF is on the way and Volvo is very important to the global success of the company.

I wonder if he might dump Mercury (v. Bill Ford who wanted to keep it) and might make a play at fully incorporating Mazda since Ford is really going to copy their planning structure as their own?

[FordFan]

Meh, It's really a big lose to sell Aston. It's one hell of a carmaker.

If the new XF and XJ fail, Jaguar is getting the boot.

[IROCNROL1]

Talking to the competition is nice I suppose, I'm sure that everyone wants to help their rivals out.

This is going to turn into yet another pro/anti union thread anyway. I guess we'll see what happens, come September.

[nadepalma]

Originally Posted by FordFan

Meh, It's really a big lose to sell Aston. It's one hell of a carmaker.

If the new XF and XJ fail, Jaguar is getting the boot.

I think that Ford will continue to hold a minority ownership of the company -- which is probably necessary since much of what Aston has is Ford derived (the V12, V8, etc). If they decided to sever ties altogether, it might mean more overhead for Aston as they would probably have to pay Ford more money for engine design rights, etc. That's just off the top of my head though, and I could be wrong.

Now Jag's future will be interesting. To some small extent, Jag and Aston overlapped each other -- so who knows what the future will hold now that they can move "upward".

Also, the sale of Aston also leaves open the possbility of another automaker taking a stake in their operations -- and the possibility that they might revive the Lagonda nameplate to make up additional sales and fatten the bottomline. I can't image them surviving on 3 models alone without a "parent", so additional sources of income need to be found to stay viable and Lagonda would probably fit that bill.

Of course, I'm just thinking out loud as always.

[Media!]

Painfull concessions are to be expected, without the union realizing it and having pay and benefits come in line with the rest of America then the Big 3 could face Bankruptcy.

[camaro_freak]

Gettelfinger is not the only person Mulally has been meeting with lately. On Wednesday, he confirmed that he and Ford Americas President Mark Fields flew to Tokyo last month for a two-hour meeting with Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho.

"We talked about advanced technology, we talked about fuel efficiency, we talked about free trade, we talked about the regulatory environment, we talked about areas where we could continue to work together for the good of the industry," Mulally said, though he would not say if any agreements had been reached between the companies.

it is a sad day when domestics have to get tips from the Japanese... for heaven sake America gave them the techniques to learn mass production after WWII! How can we now be taking advice from them?

[mjd1001]

Originally Posted by Media!

Painfull concessions are to be expected, without the union realizing it and having pay and benefits come in line with the rest of America then the Big 3 could face Bankruptcy.

If the UAW gives up only benefits that will get them in the line with the rest of America right now..they should feel lucky...because the rest of America..at least a good portion of "working class" america appears to be on their way to having a lot less in 5 years then they do now (in terms of benefits and guarantees).

[stevecmh]

i hope they succeed.. the need help

[1931Chevy]

I think that for know Mercury will not be killed
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/a...WS03/701050301

Ford Motor Co. will replace or significantly upgrade its entire lineup of domestic Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles by 2010, Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally told a group of journalists during a private dinner in the company's Dearborn design studio Wednesday.

That's an update from previous projections that Ford would update 70 percent of that lineup by 2008.

"We're really excited about it," Mulally said. "There's no reason why we can't really build cars and trucks that people really do prefer."

[hunchman]

Originally Posted by camaro_freak

it is a sad day when domestics have to get tips from the Japanese... for heaven sake America gave them the techniques to learn mass production after WWII! How can we now be taking advice from them?

I'm not trying to be a smartass but take a real close look around you and I'll bet you can even answer that

[HEVguy]

Beet'em up (er, down) Ford, the US can't let our great auto manufacturers go under by letting the unions bleed'em dry. Please, do what I always say, incorporate profit sharing into their pay so that when Ford loses (GM, etc.), then they lose out, and when Ford (et. all) win, so do the union employees... However, and this is important, union employees should only get their 'fare share' of profit, not all of it. The business still needs profit, etc. as well.

[asim]

Talk about starting early, the year just is starting to begin. It looks like Mulally really does care very much about Ford, and is willing to give his all for the turnaround. He even canceled an order of Lexus when he took his job at Ford.