“But I do think he’s quite misplaced in that if there’s a work stoppage… there will be lots of people hurt,” the former Ford CEO said.įields pointed to estimates that for every hourly auto worker, there are nine or 10 jobs supported elsewhere, from the supply chain of parts makers to local coffee shops and dry cleaners.īob Nardelli, who led Chrysler from August 2007 until he resigned in April 2009 when the company filed for bankruptcy, is similarly worried about the economic consequences of a strike. No one had any complaints about that but God forbid the workers ask for their fair share,” Fain told Jake Tapper.įields said he doesn’t take “much offense” to Fain’s comments, comparing him to a politician trying to strengthen his hand in negotiations. “In the last four years, the price of cars went up 30%. UAW President Shawn Fain argued in a CNN interview on Monday that a work stoppage would only hurt the “billionaire class.” “You don’t want the UAW to win the battle but lose the war.”įord’s plant in Chihuahua, Mexico, is also unionized, and its workers recently negotiated an 8.2% raise.Įx-Ford CEO says UAW leader is wrong on economic fallout If this is what my cost per unit is here in the US - including labor - and it’s uncompetitive, I’m going to have to move it to where it’s more competitive, like Mexico,” said Fields, who is currently a senior advisor to private equity firm TPG Capital. “The automakers are going to be very rational about this. He said that if the automakers are forced to reinstate pensions, provide healthcare for retirees and take other steps, they could decide to just move factories – and jobs – overseas. “We’re still optimistic that we’ll get a deal, but there is a limit,” Farley said, adding that his company made its most “generous offer in 80 years.”įields, the former Ford CEO, has a warning for the UAW as well: Be careful what you wish for. However, to avoid being left at a competitive disadvantage in an auto industry where consumers have many other choices, Fields urged the Big Three to push back against most non-wage demands from the UAW.Īsked by CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich on Wednesday if the union’s demands are too ambitious, Ford’s current CEO said, “We’ll see.” He pointed to the large-scale pay hikes recently won by unions, including at UPS, American Airlines and by West Coast dockworkers. There has never been a simultaneous strike against all three major US automakers, which today make nearly half of all domestically-assembled cars.įields: UAW could win the battle but lose the warįields, who said he is not advising Ford CEO Jim Farley, told CNN the Big Three will “definitely” need to agree to pay hikes “well north” of previous increases. If no deal is reached, a strike could begin at midnight on Friday. The UAW contract with the Big Three expires at 11:59 pm ET on Thursday. The United Auto Workers union is seeking significant concessions from GM, Ford and Stellantis, initially pushing for a 40% pay hike over four years, restoring cost of living increases, bringing back traditional pension plans and restoring retiree health care coverage. “They will need to find a creative way to package a fair contract that rewards workers but do it in a way that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the past.”įields noted that GM and Chrysler both declared bankruptcy in 2009 during the Great Recession. “The automakers can’t plead poverty,” Fields told CNN on Wednesday, noting the industry’s recent string of profitable years. As Detroit automakers and labor leaders scramble to hammer out a contract that will shape the future of the US auto industry, former Ford CEO Mark Fields has words of caution for both sides.įields, who led Ford between 20, is warning the Big Three (the traditional name for legacy automakers Ford, GM and Stellantis) not to cave to labor demands in a way that leaves them in a precarious financial situation and at a competitive disadvantage, even as the workers who build the cars eye their healthy profits.
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