11.41 - Comingtogether
41st edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
For Bill Ford, 'Every Negotiation Is a Roller Coaster'
N. Boudette, Oct. 18, "As a 25-year-old junior executive at the car company that bears his last name, William Clay Ford Jr '79 had a bracing introduction to labor negotiations when a union official demanded that he stand up and vouch that he was made of the same stuff as his great-grandfather Henry Ford.
Mr. Ford, now the company's executive chair, harked back to the moment in an interview this week about how he and his company are navigating one of their most difficult labor negotiations in decades.
In a speech this week, Mr. Ford said the strikes were helping nonunion automakers like Tesla, Toyota and Honda. Mr. Fain responded that workers at those companies were future U.A.W. members.
In an interview after his speech, Mr. Ford said he had been counseling his executives not to let Mr. Fain's words get to them and focus on getting a deal done. Mr. Ford also recalled his first difficult conversation with a union official.
In 1982, Mr. Ford said, his father invited him to sit in the room for talks with the U.A.W. As a newcomer, he was not allotted a seat at a table where about 50 union negotiators sat on one side and an equal number of Ford executives on the other.
Sitting against the wall, he was approached by an older union representative. "You, stand up," the man said. "What are you made of? I knew your great-grandfather and your grandfather. I knew what they were made of. What the hell are you made of?"
Mr. Ford said he had replied sheepishly that he had never known his great-grandfather and grandfather but that he shared their values. Similar confrontations followed daily — "I lived in terror of going to work," Mr. Ford said.
Then about a week later, the union officials invited him to a local bar. "Come with us," Mr. Ford said they had told him. "You passed the test."…
Have you been involved in any talks that are comparable to the current negotiations?
No, but every negotiation is different, and every leader is different. What I keep saying to our executives is: 'Don't take this personally. A lot of it is theater. The most important thing is get the deal done. The rhetoric doesn't matter.' Every negotiation is a roller coaster. Some are not pleasant, and some sting. Don't overreact. And when it's all over, we are still one team again, and have to go forward.
Are you going to be on the same team at the end of these talks?
I believe we will. I know many on their negotiating team personally, and some of them, I play hockey with them and consider them very close friends.
You've said the real competition is not U.A.W. vs. Ford but the U.A.W. and Ford against Toyota, Honda, Tesla and the Chinese automakers. Do you think the union's leadership agrees with that?
I hope so, because if they don't, it will be catastrophic. They can have disagreements with us and bargain hard, but we are not the enemy. I will never consider our employees the enemy. I think the employees know who the real competition is, and they will come together with us when this is over. We made a conscious decision to add jobs here in America when our competitors were moving production to Mexico....
Hmmmm…. I hope Bill invited Will Ford '14 to sit/stand in the room. I'm sure he also plays hockey with U.A.W. members. Hopefully, both sides can come together and keep the US mobility industry strong. We need you. Alain