(via John Cole). Ford Chairman Bill Ford was on Larry King last night and had this to say:
KING: What about the UAW in all of this?
FORD: Well, the UAW obviously has been our partner through all of this. Have they made mistakes and have we made mistakes? Of course. The UAW has come a long way. I think their leader, Ron Gettelfinger, is an excellent leader and he really understands our business. In this last contract, he gave up a lot. He’s also indicated they’re willing to come to the table to do more. And so for anybody to blame the UAW as the sole reason for this is frankly wrong.
One other thing is, when I look at the people who work in our plants, I don’t think of them as UAW. I think of them as Ford employees, Ford employees who take tremendous pride in building quality and safety into our products. If you ask someone in our plant, where do they work, they say I work at Ford. To me, everybody who works in our plant is part of our extended family.
I’ve been struck by the fact that after the Congress did not pass the bailout bridge loans that the only people exercised about the UAW in this business are republicans. You’d think that the Big 3 would be howling from the rooftops if they thought that the UAW scuttled the deal or were being the least bit recalcitrant. So here we are about a week or after the vote and the Chairman of Ford says the UAW is a good partner.
Ans while we are at it — Toyota has indefinitely delayed production at its highly subsidized Alabama plant. Apparently a highly subsidized Volkswagen plant is also delayed. Any bets as to whether the Governors of these states really, really wish they did not have their taxpayer funds and credit facilities tied up in plants that won’t open now?