United Auto Workers President Sean Fein on Wednesday endorsed President Biden’s re-election bid, claiming former President Donald Trump “doesn’t care about American workers.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley said Thursday that the company will “think carefully” about where to build its future vehicles in the wake of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike.
The strike was costly for Detroit automakers. For example, the company’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville was the first to close when thousands of UAW union members left the company.
It played a key role in the UAW’s strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall.
The UAW strike may be over, but will consumers feel it afterwards?
Speaking at the Wolf Research Global Auto Conference in New York, Farley said the strike was a “very difficult moment” for the company, adding that he was proud that Ford “hasn’t had a strike since 1970. “I had it,” he pointed out.
Ford CEO Jim Farley attended the launch of the Red Bull Racing team’s new F1 car on February 3 in New York City. (ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
He went on to say that unlike its competitors, Ford has 57,000 UAW workers and 100% of its trucks are built by those workers in the United States.
“Our competitors don’t do that. They went bankrupt and moved production to Mexico and other places. So it’s always been a cost for us. And we’ve made sure it’s the right kind of “I always thought it was a cost,” he said.
UAW attacks GM again, attacks automaker’s largest factory
The moment Ford’s factory closed was a “turning point.”
“Really, our relationship has changed,” Farley said at a news conference. “Will this impact my business? Yes.”
A picketer holds up a “UAW on Strike” sign outside the General Motors Spring Hill manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, on October 30, 2023. (Kevin Wurm/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
UAW Chairman Sean Fein said in a statement to The Associated Press that Ford should “find a CEO who cares about the future of this country’s auto industry.”
“Maybe Ford doesn’t need to move its factories to find the cheapest labor on the planet,” he says. “Maybe we need to recommit to American workers.”
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President Biden marched alongside the UAW last September and called on union members to “stick to this.”
| ticker | safety | last | change | change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | ford motor corporation | 12.31 | -0.20 | -1.64% |
It was the first time in modern history that a president appeared alongside striking workers.
Work stoppages have cost the industry billions of dollars, and the Big Three have all ratified agreements of record with unions to restart production lines.
