Ford Motor presses for UAW modifications

[rickaren]

Ford Motor presses for UAW modifications

Posted Thursday, Aug 20, 2009, 1:51 pm in Employee News

Ford Motor Co. is pushing the UAW for additional modifications to its labor contract, but one item that few are expecting is additional job cuts, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The Dearborn, Mich., automaker has aggressively cut hourly and salaried jobs during the past four years, but the pace has slowed dramatically this year, and there are no longer any major job reduction programs in the works, the paper said. Ford reduced its total North American work force by 4.9 percent during the first six months of this year, the Free Press said. That’s far less than in 2008, when Ford reduced its North American work force by 16 percent, or in 2007 when Ford reduced its North American workforce by 27 percent, the story said.

“We’ve had a remarkable record over the last several years of working with the UAW to improve the competitiveness of our business,” Joe Hinrichs, group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs, told the paper.

Jeff Terry, president of UAW Local 228 and a member of the UAW’s Ford National Negotiating Committee, said there is substantial resistance to any additional modifications. “At this time, the membership is not favorable to any further modifications, nor is the leadership,” Terry told the paper. (Detroit Free Press)