UAW Ford Start Talks, Vow To Avoid Strike
DEARBORN (WWJ) UAW President Bob King taking the optimistic attitude that he showed at Chrysler and General Motors this week, to Ford's historic Rouge Plant, for the opening of 2011 contract talks.
"I'm really upbeat about it," said King. "Because of the relationship between ford and the UAW, we have a proven ability to resolve issues."
King and UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles stressing that relationship, which has meant the union has gone more than three decades without striking Ford.
"I know that we're gonna have some differences, we always will," said Settles. "We've been able to work them out."
Settles says he feels there's a special relationship between Ford and its workers.
"Many of them are very, very proud of the leadership, and we didn't have to take any public money to survive."
Both union and Ford negotiators say they can work together to settle any differences. Executive Chairman Bill Ford says they proved that during the downturn.
"It was really a true partnership. We took a lot of tough actions that none of us wanted to do."
There are a lot of tough issues. The sides both disagreeing today over Ford's actual labor costs, in relation to foreign companies. The union has also expressed anger over Ford CEO Alan Mulally's compensation. That was not mentioned at the opening of talks. King and Mulally both smiled as they shook hands.
Ford is the only one of the domestic automakers that the union can strike. King says he's not thinking about strikes, but he didn't go as far as to completely rule it out. He said a strike vote would be Vice President Jimmy Settle's call, and that would depend on how the negotiations were going.
Ford is not eager to see a work stoppage either.
"The last thing we want to do is incur a strike," said Marty Mulloy, who will lead Ford's negotiating team. "We work well with the UAW, and have solved some very difficult problems."
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