Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett has plans to meet with United Auto Workers (UAW) union leaders to discuss his future plans for the automaker before meeting with Wall Street investors and analysts to share the same vision, reports Automotive News. The choice communicates a willingness to put workers first ahead of investors, in breaking with the usual modus operandi.
“Normally, it’s the other way around, if it happens at all,” UAW Ford Department Director Jimmy Settles says of Hackett’s planned meeting with UAW-Ford leadership. “Then people know that I care about you. You’re hearing it from me. You don’t have to hear about it from the media.”
The meeting is scheduled to take place this month in Detroit, and Ford’s CEO has already assured Jimmy Settles and UAW President Dennis Williams that laying off UAW-Ford workers is not currently on the table, Settles says. As the auto industry enters a downturn, prompting Ford to lay off ten percent of its salaried staff in North American and Asia, that’s welcome news.
Settles’ hope is that at the meeting, Mr. Hackett “outlines the vision, the long-term vision,” he says. “Our members want to hear that. People want to feel secure.”
No Comments yet