Banged-up Ford next target for UAW

[Omaha Steve]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/11/news/companies/ford_uaw/

GM, Chrysler have hammered out their pacts. Now it's Ford's turn - and it will need to try to wrest even more union concessions.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com
October 11 2007: 4:37 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors and Chrysler LLC got most of what they wanted from the United Auto Workers, even if it took two blink-of-the-eye strikes to get it.

The big question on Thursday, in the wake of a six-hour strike and tentative deal with Chrysler and rank-and-file ratification of a contract with GM (Charts, Fortune 500), is whether the terms of those pacts will be enough for Ford Motor (Charts, Fortune 500), by far the industry's most troubled automaker.

Ford lost a record $12.7 billion in 2006, and while the company as a whole managed to post a second-quarter profit, its core North American auto operations aren't expected to return to profitability until 2009 at the earliest.


Auto workers at Ford could soon be asked to approve even greater cost savings than their counterparts at GM and Chrysler.

It has closed six major plants in the last 18 months and has trimmed its U.S. hourly labor force by a third in the last year. But it's not done with the cost-cutting: Ford expects to close another 10 plants during the life of the new UAW contract it will try to reach in the coming weeks.

The future of the company is at stake. Ford has mortgaged much of its facilities and equipment to the hilt - despite the junk bond status of its debt - to pay for its ambitious turnaround effort. Failure could lead to bankruptcy and the end of the Ford family's control over the company's shares.

Chairman Bill Ford Jr., great grandson of the founder, already gave up the CEO a year ago and brought in Boeing (Charts, Fortune 500) commercial aircraft chief Alan Mulally to shake things up.

FULL story at link.