Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford called on autoworkers to come together to end a monthlong strike that he says could cost the company the ability to invest in the future. In a rare speech during contract talks in the company’s hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, Ford said high labor costs could limit the company’s ability to make future investments. “If we lose it, we will lose to the competition. America loses.
The UAW later added another assembly plant at both GM and Ford. Last Wednesday Fain made the surprise announcement that the union would walk out at the Kentucky plant, which makes Super Duty pickups and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs. About 34,000 of the union’s 146,000 employees at all three automakers are now on strike. Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, the company’s internal combustion engine business, told reporters Thursday that Ford stretched to get to the offer it now has on the table.