Surprise labour deal at Ford

[BGH]

Ford and the Canadian Auto Workers have bargained a surprise three-year deal which would freeze wages for current workers but reduce pay temporarily for new employees in a deal that could pave the way for early contract settlements at General Motors and Chrysler this year.
CAW president Buzz Hargrove announced this afternoon that the deal with Ford would also immediately freeze a cost of living allowance until September next year for all workers and cut vacation pay. But the deal would also give employees a $2,300 bonus this fall and save the company's assembly plant in St. Thomas until 2011, he said.
In exchange for the loss of 40 hours of vacation pay or one week annually, workers would receive a special $3,500 payment in the fall of 2009.



http://www.wheels.ca/article/229616

[EldoFan]

Sounds okay here........now hopefully Ford can start doing work again and making some sales......

[1931Chevy]

Interesting so this confirms that the last year of the panthers will be 2011, and not bad after Hargrove theatened to strike

[Sinner]

Originally Posted by 1931Chevy

Interesting so this confirms that the last year of the panthers will be 2011, and not bad after Hargrove theatened to strike

The east is hurting pretty bad, they couldn't afford to strike.

[sags]

It looks like a reasonable agreement, given the circumstances.

Interesting that Buzz has decided to set the pattern early.

GM and Chrysler will now have the pressure on them to match it.

Brilliant strategy by the CAW.

[gardnet1]

Originally Posted by sags

It looks like a reasonable agreement, given the circumstances.

Interesting that Buzz has decided to set the pattern early.

GM and Chrysler will now have the pressure on them to match it.

Brilliant strategy by the CAW.

Brilliant strategy by Ford too. Ford still makes a good profit at St. Thomas on the Panther cars, so a few more years of sales won't hurt; especially for Mercury and the Cops will be happy as well. Ford is a smaller player in Canada than GM or maybe even Chrysler. I'm sure GM and Chrysler would have wanted more concessions and now that will be hard to do. GM's counter will be to get the Oshawa layoffs back to work.

I really thought this was going to be an ugly arse strike. It seems when Ford takes the lead in negotiations, that strikes rarely happen.

[igor]

The bottom line is that Ford could not afford a CAW strike - practically all of their hot crossovers are built in Canada and they are launchingv the Flex in a week - they simply did not push as hard in exchange for continued production of the Edge/MKX and smooth Flex launch.

good analysis here: http://www.autosavant.net/2008/04/fo...erms-with.html

Igor

[69Firebird400]

As I said in the Autosavant article that Igor linked, the queston is whether Ford left money on the table for short term convenience/benefit (a smoother Flex launch) when they might have driven a harder bargain if there wasn't a key launch coming up in weeks. Still, it's always nice to remove some uncertainty from the company's operations.

I'd be surprised if GM and Chrysler match the Ford deal, at least this early. But I was also very surprised to see this go down so quickly.

[johnny smallblock]

Ford gets pay freezes for 3 years or salary reductions, cost of living freezes for 3 years, and reduced vacation time.

Employees get a one-time $2300 payment. Or $16 a week over 3 years. Boy the union really raked them over the coals on that one.

[69Firebird400]

Originally Posted by johnny smallblock

Ford gets pay freezes for 3 years or salary reductions, cost of living freezes for 3 years, and reduced vacation time.

Employees get a one-time $2300 payment. Or $16 a week over 3 years. Boy the union really raked them over the coals on that one.

But the CAW got a better deal than the UAW did, because the any UAW new hires come in at HALF the going rate for the long-termers, and it doesn't escalate. The CAW new hires will start at a lower rate but be up to full scale within like 3 years. That is a big difference going forward, and the reason that even Hargrove the CAW president concedes there is still a $7 per hour cost disadvantage to building a car in Canada. Other sources have put the cost differential at around double what he's admitting, by the way.