Saturday, October 01, 2011
Alan Mulally
At Ford Motor Co. there hasn’t been a bad quarter in more than two years. The auto manufacturer’s top executive earned more than $25 million in 2010. And yet management feels its auto workers—who gave up raises and benefits when the company teetered towards collapse in 2007—are too costly and should concede even more in the effort to reach a new labor agreement.
Assembly line workers at Ford on average cost the company about $58 an hour, after wages and benefits are factored in. That’s the highest employee expense in the industry, and that’s why Ford’s leadership isn’t feeling generous towards its employees.
However, the auto maker has enjoyed nine profitable quarters in a row. And the fact is that CEO Alan Mulally made $26.5 million last year.
The company did reinstate merit pay and some bonuses for its middle managers in 2010.
Factory employees, on the other hand, did not fare so well and are now insisting that they get the cost-of-living raises, performance bonuses and other benefits they sacrificed a few years ago to help keep the corporation afloat, until better times arrived…like now.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Will Ford Refuse To Share Profits With Its Workers After Paying Its CEO $26 Million? (by Pat Garofalo, ThinkProgress)
Ford Success: Time to Share It with Union Workers? (by Tom Krishner, Associated Press)
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