Senator Corker must be so proud of himself. He held Ford’s feet to the fire . . . oh, no, wait, Ford didn’t bother with that meeting. Anyway, today Ford is crowing [via AP] that its revised UAW contract gets close enough to wage parity with the transplants to call it a done deal. Which is kind of strange, because Ford’s accounting puts the all-in costs under the newest deal at $55/hour compared to the $48-$49 number people toss around for the transplants. Hmmm, maybe I’ll try that kind of “close enough” math when I pay my bills. Ford’s spin-meisters could have pointed out that nobody outside the transplants really knows what they are paying, but they didn’t. Absent a published union contract, all we can do is guess.
Ford is also very excited about getting rid of the jobs bank. Yes, well, FoMoCo remains on the hook for 26 or 52 weeks (depending on seniority) of unemployment supplementary payments for laid off workers. As previously reported, Ford is also going to get to make half of its [Mother of all Health Care funds] VEBA contributions with freshly-minted company stock—provided said stock doesn’t fall below $1/share. All of which is not going to matter much if sales stay at recent dismal levels.
Out of curiosity when was the last time Ford stock was worth more than GM>?
Although that’s not quite parity from where I’m sitting, (if it’s true) that’s a dramatic improvement over the numbers for adjusted salaries I usually see for the UAW (usually 10 to 15 dollars more per hour than that $55).
Supplemental benefits are much less expensive than the Jobs Bank payments. Ford is only a % of the lost wages above what the worker gets from unemployment, and now it is based on seniority. Still a better deal than most American workers, but alot less than it used to be. Baby steps..
Is it time to stop shrinking and time to start growing yet?
@ dwford
Is it time to stop shrinking and time to start growing yet?
Ford couldn’t risk it until Chrysler and GM are (finally) put to sleep. Rather than one strong US player with respect worldwide (Ford), it’ll be at least two, maybe still three, on decade-long life support.
Out of curiosity when was the last time Ford stock was worth more than GM?
FWIW, according to the Yahoo! Finance bar on the right, at 10:38pm on March 11, 2009, Ford is sitting at $1.96 above GM’s $1.86. Ford gained 11 cents to GM’s loss of 3 cents.
In case anyone was wondering.
Out of curiosity when was the last time Ford stock was worth more than GM?
The price per share number isn’t the important point of comparison, because Ford and GM don’t have the a similar number of shares outstanding.
The relevant comparison is total market capitalization, which is the price per share multiplied times the number of shares outstanding. As of today’s close, GM’s total market cap is $1.14 Billion and Ford’s is $4.70 Billion. The markets value Ford’s common stock at more than four times that of GM.
The supplementary unemployment income doesn’t sound out of line with other industries. A few years back I worked for a large company (non-union and not related to auto) that was bought out. Laid off workers received a month’s severance for every year with the company, up to six months.
On the other hand, if Ford is only paying out as long as the person is on unemployment, that’s a rather large disincentive to finding another job.
If the numbers are right, I’m ready to say close a-fricking-‘nough. That might not work for bill paying, but it sure works for the old argument that Detroit can’t compete because of labor costs.
Does anyone think it might be the quality of the cars?
Well I’m glad Ford is talking about this. It’ll make it interesting to hear what excuses they’ll have in the future for losing money and getting their butts kicked by the foreign devils.