The talks will be centered on Ford's need to cut costs in order to remain outside government protection and the needs of the CAW to see their job and production requirements met. Unlike GM and Chrysler, who asked for the CAW support in order to receive government money, Ford needs it to remain competitive.
So far, CAW has agreed to frozen wages, reduced paid holidays and the suspension of cost of living allowance increase. Ford on the other hand said it has enough liquidity to tackle the ongoing crisis, but asked for the same concessions as given to its two Detroit competitors, just-auto.com reported.
Ford operates facilities in St Thomas, Oakville and Windsor. Ford plans to close the first of the three in 2011, when the collective agreement reached last year expires, but it would appear UAW's main request for allowing the concessions is to keep St. Thomas open.
In the US, Ford announced last week 1,000 UAW workers have accepted the company's buyouts in the last quarter and it does not plan to offer more. In all, Ford's US workforce amounts to 47,000, down from the 95,000 threshold in 2003. In Canada, Ford has about 6,800 CAW workers.
Ford posted a $2.3 billion quarterly profit, mainly due to debt restructuring. Reuters reports that the net profit amounted to 69 cents per share for the second quarter, compared with a net loss of $2.7 billion, or $3.89 per share, a year earlier.
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