Following a six-week-long targeted strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis that involved plenty of public sparring from both sides, The Blue Oval reached a tentative agreement on a new master contract with the union that was ratified by workers a few weeks later. Ford later revealed that the strike shaved around $1.3 billion off its bottom line – some of which was reflected by the automaker’s Q4 2023 financial reporting – though it also noted that it planned to pay for the deal by reducing inefficiencies across its operations. Now, Ford CEO Jim Farley has revealed that the strike may have even more future implications, according to the Associated Press.
“Our reliance on the UAW turned out to be we were the first truck plant to be shut down,” Farley said while speaking at the Wolfe Research Global Auto Conference in New York. “Really our relationship has changed. It’s been a watershed moment for the company. Does this have business impact? Yes.”
Farley added that fallout from the UAW strike has prompted the automaker to “think carefully” about where it will build vehicles in the future, nothing that this is a big shift in philosophy after the two sides had previously enjoyed a cozier relationship that avoided strikes since the 1970s.
The Blue Oval CEO also noted that while other automakers shifted some truck manufacturing operations to Mexico in recent years, Ford chose to instead invest in the U.S., though that has reportedly resulted in a $7 billion dollar annual cost disadvantage versus the competition. As such, Farley somewhat left the door open for future vehicles – including its forthcoming, cheaper EV models – to be built in places other than on American soil.
We’ll have more on the fallout of the new UAW contract with Ford soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-UAW news, UAW news, and comprehensive Ford news coverage
Comments
Looks like the UAW won the battle but lost the war.
The UAW is dying and it seems to want to take the auto industry with them. I grew up and lived in Detroit in the sixties and seventies. Lessons are never learned. My father worked “on the line” at Ford. “Mr. Ford” as we called Henry Ford II “put a roof over our head and food on the table.”
With all the subsidies the United States provides Ford, it can FOAD if they move production out of the US.
Agree.
Tariffs
Absolutely!
Raised the wages,then laid off the workers.Read the fine print,there was tricky language as always…Get the facts. Seems the profits were there.How much does the goverment take ? 33% .Wake the WOKE