Ford reaches tentative UAW contract.
Who would of thunk? How would you like to get a $9000 ratification bonus on top of your raise along with no healthcare cost increases or changes in coverage? And $3500 if you're a temp? Anyone w...
Forum Discussion
ShinerBock wrote:Terryallan wrote:
Ford took many measures to cut costs, including closing many dealerships. Which in my humble opinion has hurt their sales. Several towns near us have no Ford store, but do have GM, and Fiat Chrysler stores. The nearest Ford store is more than 20 miles away. lots of people like to buy close to home, so they settle for a Chevy, or Ram instead of driving 20 + miles to buy.
It is the opposite where I live. More Ford dealers than anything else. Also, I do believe that Ford would have taken the bailout of they knew that they were not going to receive the other loan from the Department of Energy. Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO at the time and a man who I admire, actually touches on this in one of his books.
Ford still has a better presence in the NW compared to FCA. I have three good Ford dealers and one marginal FCA dealer within 20 miles of me. If my Ram were to give me any type of major trouble, I would have to take it 100 miles to find a good dealer and would have passed many more competent Ford dealers. If I were to just count the number of dealerships, Ford easily has two to three for every FCA in my area.
I do believe the unions make products more expensive and see it with Boeing being right outside my door. I also see unions protecting jobs that are not that difficult to master but are highly specialized. This means that the current workers may have few cross skills to work elsewhere but it would be easy to back fill them with new employees without the union in the way.
