Is the Future still Friendly????For the TWU during the next contract negotiations___I don't think so.
Looks to me that the TWU leadership__if you can call it that__will likely try to take the same, usual high road as 'no concessions' Buss Hargrove is going to try one more time.
However, this time it looks to me like Buss, and all the other dinosaur union bosses here, are going to get their heads served on a platter in the coming years as globalization takes an ever firmer grip on corporate competiveness.
Everyone gets what they deserve__sooner or later.
Ford fires warning shot at CAW
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
DEARBORN, Mich. — — North American car buyers don't care where vehicles are built, so the Canadian operations of Ford Motor Co. must become more competitive if the company is going to continue manufacturing in Canada, senior company executives warn.
"The most important conversation we're having in Canada is about competitiveness," Ford chief executive officer Alan Mulally said during a dinner at the company's headquarters on Tuesday.
"It's the competitiveness of Ford, it's the competitiveness of operating in Canada."
The new contracts Ford and its Detroit rivals have signed with the United Auto Workers union have substantially reduced the three companies' U.S. labour costs. Those reductions, combined with the surge in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. currency, have changed the competitive landscape and turned Canada into what is believed to be the highest cost jurisdiction in the world to manufacture vehicles.
"The Canadian business from a manufacturing standpoint has to be competitive with what we do in the rest of the world," said Joe Hinrichs, group vice-president of global manufacturing, one of five senior Ford executives at the dinner.
"The marketplace doesn't look at a vehicle built in Canada versus a vehicle built in the U.S. and see it differently, so we have to have a manufacturing model and a business model that works if we're going to sell vehicles made in Canada in North America," Mr. Hinrichs said.
The Ford executives made their comments at the design studios of the company's Lincoln luxury division near the company's world headquarters in Dearborn on the eve of the North American International Auto Show, which begins Sunday in Detroit.
They mark the first statements by any senior Detroit Three executives about the coming negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers union.
CAW president Buzz Hargrove has already indicated that he expects this year's set of negotiations to be the toughest yet, given the Detroit Three's market share declines, the rise in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. currency and the new UAW deals.
Mr. Hargrove has publicly stated, however, that key elements of the UAW deal are non-starters when it comes to the CAW talks, including a new, two-tiered wage system that allows the companies to pay newly hired workers $14 (U.S.) an hour, less than half what they're paying existing workers.
Another key change is that the Ford, Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. offloaded massive health care costs to a trust, wiping several billion dollars of liabilities off their balance sheets.
Mr. Hinrichs said labour costs in Canada and the United States had been diverging for several contracts even before the recent UAW deal, but mainly in benefits.
He noted for example that Canadian workers get more time off the job than their U.S. counterparts.
Some union officials have noted privately that the extra time off in Canada — called SPA weeks for special paid absences — irritates company management and acknowledge that may be one benefit the CAW will have to surrender during this year's talks.
The biggest question mark at Ford Canada is the future of the St. Thomas Assembly Plant near London, Ont., which makes full-sized sedans that are sold mainly to taxi operators and police forces. The plant's work force was reduced to one shift last year.
Mr. Hinrichs was asked at the dinner on Tuesday what Ford's plans are for the cars and whether the auto maker plans to announce any more assembly plant closings in Canada or the United States between now and the year 2010.
He did not directly answer either question.