Posts tagged Ford
Ford workers told their CEO ‘none of the young people want to work here.’ So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder’s playbook
July 1, 2025 // “The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,’” Farley said. Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
Exclusive-UAW investment blunder cost the union an estimated $80 million, documents show
June 24, 2025 // The board voted to liquidate about $340 million in stock investments in August 2023 to pay strike costs, according to a union document reviewed by Reuters. The wording of the vote stipulated that the money be reinvested according to union policy after the strike ended and the labor contracts were ratified, though it didn't specify how quickly. But almost none of its portfolio was invested in stocks during the year after the strike began in September 2023, according to the records reviewed by Reuters. The news agency was unable to establish why the stock investment wasn't made. The issue of why the union did not reinvest the funds for more than a year is now being investigated by the federal monitor which was appointed as part of a 2020 settlement between the UAW and the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a union corruption scandal, according to a statement from a majority of UAW board members.
UAW watchdog faults Fain, portrays him as angry foul-mouthed leader who targeted underling
June 18, 2025 // United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain illegitimately retaliated against the second most-powerful leader of the union in stripping her of power after threatening to "slit" the "throats" of anyone who "messed" with his inner circle, a government watchdog said late Tuesday. The watchdog, lawyer Neil Barofsky, leveled the allegation in a quarterly report delivered to U.S. District Judge David Lawson, who gained broad control of a deal to oversee the UAW in 2020 following a years-long public corruption scandal. The scandal sent two former union presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams, to federal prison along with several others convicted of breaking labor laws, stealing union funds and receiving bribes, kickbacks and illegal benefits from contractors and auto executives.
Do More Powerful Unions Generate Better Pro-Worker Outcomes?
May 15, 2025 // Unionization is generally associated with higher wages for lower-skilled unionized workers.[37] However, when unionized sectors set higher wages, excess workers shift to nonunionized sectors, increasing the labor supply and lowering wages for lower-skilled nonunion workers.
Op-ed: California Legislature should drop latest attack on gig workers
April 21, 2025 // “The bill’s utter lack of detail is a problem,” William Messenger told us; he’s vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which defends workers’ right not to be controlled by unions. “It’s almost like they’re giving that department the authority to just sort of make up its own labor law.” He contrasted that with Massachusetts, whose voters last November passed Question 3, which enacts gig driver rules, but runs to 33 pages and, among other things, details a hearing and appeals process.
Face The Nation UAW president Shawn Fain says “tariffs are a tool in the toolbox” in helping auto workers
April 1, 2025 // "Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing, and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here, and, you know, invest in the American workers," Fain told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Mr. Trump announced the 25% tariffs last week, which he said will take effect on April 2, escalating his administration's effort to boost domestic manufacturers through aggressive trade measures. Fain, who leads the 400,000-member union that went on a 46-day strike in 2023, called the tariffs a "motivator,"
Free the Economy podcast with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker
March 27, 2025 // Our interview for Episode 116 of the Free the Economy podcast is with Vinnie Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker. We talk about labor unions, independent contractors, right-to-work laws, port automation, and the future of the American workforce. Free the Economy is hosted by Richard Morrison. Our co-producer and editor is Destry Edwards. Keep up with new episodes by following us on Twitter at @freethe_economy and read our episode summaries, with links to the stories we cover, at cei.org/blog.
Workers hope to steer giant Southern EV battery plant toward unionization
March 25, 2025 // Buoyed by notable victories in the last couple of years, the United Auto Workers union is revving up efforts to organize the EV and battery sector in the South. One target is a sprawling campus in rural Kentucky that, once completed, will be one of the largest EV battery plants in the world. A supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK has asked the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on joining the United Auto Workers. The nearly $6 billion electric vehicle battery campus in Glendale, Kentucky, is part of a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On. It’s not up and running yet, but early hires say they’re exposed to hazards on the job, including formation production operator Alisha Miller.
UAW files labor charges against VW over Chattanooga worker buyouts
March 14, 2025 // The UAW said in a statement the company is attempting to cut jobs and make major changes without first negotiating with the union as required by law. UAW President Shawn Fain said that nearly a year ago, thousands of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga voted to join the UAW to "win the respect and dignified life that union autoworkers at the Big Three have enjoyed for generations." "Since then, the company has failed to meet the basic standard at the bargaining table that 150,000 American autoworkers have won at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis," he said in the statement.
Eaton Employee Forces IAM Union Bosses to Abandon Illegal Termination & Fine Threats
February 24, 2025 // Robert Jacobs, an employee of power management firm Eaton Corporation at its Troy, Illinois, facility, has forced International Association of Machinists (IAM) union officials to back off their threats to fire him unless he paid hundreds in illegal fees they imposed on him after he exercised his right to end his union membership. Jacobs filed federal charges in January challenging the union’s so-called “reinstatement fee” threats at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). He received free legal aid from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.