UAW Update — October 16, 2023

Locator: 45795UAW. 

Updates 

Re-posting:  

October 16, 2023: Bill Ford gets it, but is it too late? The fact that Bill Ford is now weighing in on this strike in the public forum speaks volumes. Link here.

October 16, 2023: UAW going for the jugular and now it's getting personal:

October 16, 2023: Ford CEO — unprecedented — pleads with UAW — becoming an existential issue. 

• the CEO would not have made this speech without board support
• is the CEO on the ropes; or,
• has Fain overplayed his hand?
  
• over the weekend: Ford’s best and final offer
• shares holding up well
• agree to disagree: back to work without a contract while negotiations continue? 
• has Faun over-promised; was 40% pie-in-the-sky — could Fain deliver incredible contract but comeu up short of “promises”; Fain accepts; members won’t?
• what happens if Fain can’t control his union? Remember — very few union members have participated in strike action; based on human psychology and reporting in the news, majority of workers want opportunity to show solidarity, show anger, vent, get it out of their system 
• parallels with Asteroid City when protagonist burned his hand; the protagonists in this movie are the rank-and-file members
• by the way: what are the salaries and benefits of the union leadership and has their pay and benefits increased over the past five years?

October 15, 2023: there now appears to be a race to see who can idle the most workers the fastest: management (layoffs); union (strike) — for management, idling workers may be better than risking the consequences of not taking preemptive action.

October 11, 2023: egos getting in the way of serious negotiations? Link here.

Original Post

From earlier today.

Now, today, from Barron's. 

The United Auto Workers strike against the Detroit-Three auto makers just entered a new phase Wednesday. It means more uncertainty for investors. It also means the auto makers and the union are still far apart on a couple of key issues.

Tuesday evening, UAW workers walked out at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant . It’s a move designed to inflict serious financial pain on the auto maker. 

With nearly 9,000 workers, Kentucky is Ford’s largest plant in the world. F-series super duty is built there. That’s an important profit generator for Ford’s commercial business, Ford Pro. The Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition are built there, too. Overall, Kentucky generates about $25 billion in sales annually. Ford is expected to generate $173 billion in sales in 2023, according to FactSet. 

Ford stock has fallen 1% in after-hours trading.

Now about 17,000 Ford workers are on strike, bringing the total at all three auto makers to about 33,000. Total UAW employment at the Detroit-Three is about 145,000 workers. 

Ford says it has the best economic offer of the three auto makers on the table. It was unwilling to make a new offer, yesterday, Wednesday, October 11, 2023.

Since then, we've come to that space between a rock and a hard place: