Ford Needs to Press Their Advantage

I have said it before here a few times - a long term strategic analysis can only lead to the conclusion that Ford and the UAW should part ways. The latest news from the front lines is that the UAW rank and file have rejected labor concessions that would put Ford on an equal footing with GM and Chrysler in terms of labor costs (unlimted government subsidies, well, that is another story). There is a little wrinkle here in that the UAW leadership was actually pushing for the better deal for Ford. I presume that the UAW brass know that if Ford is uncompetitive long term it will 1) not fare well and thus need a GM-style bailout, the public appettite for which is long gone, or 2) come to agree with Donny Baseball's analysis. The rank and file seem not to feel similarly. My guess is that they see Ford as doing OK so why should they give up anything.

My initial reaction is that Ford has an opening here. They can inflict a little pain on the rank and file, and say "See, you should have listened to your leadership" or they can go to the leadership and say "You can't deliver votes, so we're not going to meet you in the middle on your priorities." I don't quite see how Ford can use this situation to make the hyperleap to a UAW-free future, and perhaps Ford isn't even contemplating such a move. Nonetheless, given the opening they now have and the latest chill sent down the spine of organized industrial labor courtesy of Boeing (Alan Mulally is ex-Boeing, keep in mind), Ford is in a good position to take a bigger step in that direction. They ought to do so soon to take advantage of the conditions on the ground.