DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., the most profitable U.S. carmaker, heads into contract talks with the UAW next week in the worst position among the three U.S. automakers.
Because Ford didn't take a government bailout, it lacks two weapons rivals have: binding arbitration and a ban on strikes.
As part of U.S.-backed bankruptcies in 2009, workers at General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC agreed not to strike over wages and benefits during these contract talks and to take unsettled disputes from the bargaining table to arbitration.
Workers at Ford went against the wishes of union leaders and rejected the strike ban and arbitration, so Ford is the only U.S. automaker that faces the threat of a strike.
"There's no doubt that Ford would be better off if they had binding arbitration," said Kristin Dziczek, a labor analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ratifying a deal at Ford is a bit more dicey than the other two because they've proven they'll turn down an agreement."
The union usually picks one automaker to create a deal it uses as a template with the other two. This pattern bargaining has kept wages and benefits close to parity among the three automakers, which now employ about 113,000 U.S. hourly workers.
This time, the parity could be disrupted: With Ford earning $9.3 billion in the last two years, workers there may hesitate to accept an agreement crafted at GM or Chrysler or by an arbitrator for those companies.
www.an.com
Because Ford didn't take a government bailout, it lacks two weapons rivals have: binding arbitration and a ban on strikes.
As part of U.S.-backed bankruptcies in 2009, workers at General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC agreed not to strike over wages and benefits during these contract talks and to take unsettled disputes from the bargaining table to arbitration.
Workers at Ford went against the wishes of union leaders and rejected the strike ban and arbitration, so Ford is the only U.S. automaker that faces the threat of a strike.
"There's no doubt that Ford would be better off if they had binding arbitration," said Kristin Dziczek, a labor analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ratifying a deal at Ford is a bit more dicey than the other two because they've proven they'll turn down an agreement."
The union usually picks one automaker to create a deal it uses as a template with the other two. This pattern bargaining has kept wages and benefits close to parity among the three automakers, which now employ about 113,000 U.S. hourly workers.
This time, the parity could be disrupted: With Ford earning $9.3 billion in the last two years, workers there may hesitate to accept an agreement crafted at GM or Chrysler or by an arbitrator for those companies.
www.an.com