WP: Ford's Chief Makes Case for Federal Help

Ford's Chief Makes Case for Federal Help
He Says Automakers Need Incentives to Keep Up
By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Page D01


Ford Motor Co. Chairman William C. Ford Jr. urged the government yesterday to help struggling U.S. automakers by expanding subsidies for companies that make components for hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicles, as U.S. automakers race to close a widening technology gap with the Japanese.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Ford asked for more incentives, such as tax credits, to prod consumers to buy hybrids and other vehicles with fuel-saving technology. He also asked Congress for money to retrain workers, and to consider tax incentives to help manufacturers outfit old plants with new equipment. In the speech, Ford said a national strategy is needed to respond to the pressures of globalization, which he called the "economic challenge of our time."

After the speech, Ford planned to meet with economic officials at the White House yesterday, including Allan Hubbard, the White House's adviser on economic policy. Ford said he expected to talk about conditions in the industry and to plan a summit on energy issues that he said the White House has agreed to hold.

Ford and other U.S. auto executives are under intense pressure as automakers lose market share and embark on one of the most difficult periods of industry restructuring in years. On Monday, General Motors Corp. chief executive G. Richard Wagoner Jr. announced 30,000 job cuts and a dozen plant closings by 2008, slashing the workforce of the world's largest automaker by more than 20 percent.

Last month, Ford -- the nation's No. 2 automaker -- reported a $1.2 billion third-quarter loss in its North American division. Ford plans to detail a restructuring plan of "significant" plant closings and job cuts in January. Delphi Corp., a major auto parts supplier for Ford and GM, filed for bankruptcy protection last month....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201092.html

that put the focus back on focussing on long term health of companies rather than using stock prices as a way to make corporate insiders rich regardless of the health of the company.

Also, how about trying turn American back into a country that makes things and employs people rather than a country where wealth is created by the smoke and mirrors of "finance".

by all democratic candidates, that's a solid base for rebuilding our economy.

More of that "can do" American spirit. Yes by God, our flawless Free Market (cough) Capitalist (cough) system can compete with anyone in the world (cough).

Our highly paid captains of industry are worth every penny as they navigate the shoals of global competition. Who needs government intervention (cough) when you've got the greatest management teams in the world leading your world class industries.

We're (cough) number (cough) one.

rugged individualist business leaders (cough) as they, without assistance (cough) from anyone in government, which never (cough) created a job in the history of mankind (cough), face their foreign competitors.

...maybe you need a little lemon and honey tea with your billion dollar bailout.

Particularly in Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia & Ontario.

But not to worry - Detroit is just waiting for the Delphi Surge - when those freshly re-contracted Delphi workers go from $22 an hour to $8 an hour, you're gonna see a rush of business in Big Three showrooms like you've never seen before!

:puke:

The US Auto manufactures make a product that is worth buying and back it up with warrantys much like the Asian auto makers....7 year/70000 mile...10year/100000......3year/36000 is old news...

The workers I believe are doing the best with what they got I think the change has to start with thte CEOs.

In a word....they need to reinvent the wheel

...where you don't have to ask what the warranty is. Like a Honda. Or a Toyota. You drive it around the block, decide what color you want, and buy the damn thing without worrying whether it was built on a Monday morning or a Friday night.

Funny that Ford wants subsidies for plant upgrades...so it can relocate said plants on our dime to some right-to-work shithole like South Carolina where they can pay assembly workers $9/hr. and they'll kiss your ass for it.

South Carolina has the nation's highest unemployment rate.

Tell ya what, Mr. Bill Ford. How about you turn your engineers loose on the problem, put somebody in charge who understands engineers, and come up with something that won't fall apart before the payment book is empty. You know, like Japan does. How the hell do you think they can get a four-banger to pump out 160+ horsepower without turbos or blowers, get said four-bangers certified SULEVs in all 50 states, and propel a midsize family sedan for 34 MPG highway?

Their SUV's don't swill as much gas as their US counterparts, either.

Instead, it is building a plant in high-wage, unionized Ontario.

IIRC, Toyota also wants all employees to be able to read and write at a reasonable level. It does not want to repeat Nissan's experience in one of its Southern plants in which operating instructions necessarily are given in pictures only, like airplane emergency instructions. This is not a slam on Southerners per se. I've met plenty of smart ones. However, the school systems tend to be ranked at the bottom. A body can't know what it hasn't been taught.

I keep hearing that GM and Ford and other big companies are indeed being seriously hurt by the cost of worker health care plans. That keeps coming up as an excuse for downsizing, outsourcing, building plants overseas, and dumping pensioners.

So here's my shout-out to the big guys: Lean on your old pal Bush to help you out by finally nationalizing health care.

Hey -- it could happen.

Hekate

The U.S. is at a huge competitive disadvantage with the rest of the industrialized world due to our lack of a functioning health care system. Manufacturers and state governments should be leading the push for national health care. Recently, Toyota (i think) chose a location in Canada over the U.S. due to health care costs, and the education level of the workforce.

equalize competition between newer companies and older ones.

For example, in the airline industry, Southwest does not have many retirees for whom it pays health benefits. United, Delta, etc., all do, simply because they've been around long enough to have a sizable group of retirees.

Older companies are also bogged down with defined benefit pension liabilities that were agreed upon many, many years ago. Now, almost no one has a defined benefit plan, only a defined contribution plan. Put that together with ERISA/PBGC fudging rules and you have real problems with underfunding the defined benefit.

Someone needs to come up with a plan to put companies, old and new, on the same pension footing as well as health care footing without screwing the workers.

efficient technologies and cars and you didnt; you built lots of trucks and suvs instead. Nothing is stopping you from competing with the japanese manufacturers other than the weakness and incompetence of your management.

...that has done ANYTHING about fuel-efficiency in SUVs and trucks. They are the only ones who did any planning for the eventual downturn in SUV sales. They can't compete with the japanese manufacturers for the same reasons that all other US automakers can't compete with the Japanese.

take the last round of public gifts away from the oil companies, too. I feel sorry for American auto workers, but not the companies. Toyota has been making cars we want to buy for decades. You'd think the "Big 3" might have taken the hint by now. People only buy behemoth, gas guzzling SUVs if you give them away and/or they find a tax loophole that writes them off. The rest of us opt for sanity. The one and only thing that will bring ALL American businesses back to the market in a competetive way is universal health care.

They made the same STUPID mistakes that they made in the late '70's. Nobody told them to keep making huge family trucksters while the Japanese companies were making hybrids. In fact, numerous people told them not to. They ignored the advice, and fell flat on their damned faces again.

It's pretty obvious that those running the Big 3 automakers are incompetent. I don't see any reason to throw good money after bad...again. Let'em sink or swim capitalist-style like they want the rest of us to do.

The uber rich will be the last to join the food line and the last to seak shelter under bridges, when they arrive there will be a special welcome to be sure.

Come on everybody, its meat tonight!

Besides, have you ever thought about the waste of time and energy it would be to CLEAN one of those suckers? Shriveled-up heart, too much fat, atrophied brain, full of shit... my guess is that you'd get one or two jerky treats out of them, but that's it.

Now, maybe a nice, rich, hot broth...

:argh:

It was about the only decent part of the Energy Pork Parade squeezed from the Capitol Hill Legislative Sphincter this summer.

But you know what the really funny part is, Bill ol' boy? It's the fact that pressure from FORD, GM and DAIMLER/CHRYSLER led lawmakers to limit the number of hybrids eligible for the credit to 60,000 from each manufacturer.

http://www.hybridcars.com/tax-deductions.html

And who demanded that limit? Why, you did, Bill - you did. You see, Bill, the concept was that this would limit the number of Toyota and Honda hybrids sold.

Detroit demanded and got limits and suddenly they're NOT a good idea? Well sorry, Bill, but this is the legislation you bought and paid for - and suddenly this legislation does not please you?

Well guess what - TOUGH SHIT!

something out of Ford and GM, particularly Ford.

Ford has been working on the hybrid drive train for some time. It developed almost all of the system itself in order to better understand the engineering. It found that its system was similar to Toyota's in many ways, and that to put the Ford out on the market would probably infringe on many Toyota patents.

In order to solve the problem, Toyota and Ford entered into a cross licensing agreement in which Ford received the rights to Toyota's hybrid patents and Toyota received the rights to some of Ford's diesel patents.

Ford has a high-mileage Escape hybrid SUV on the road and it has a 6-month wait list. It cannot make more hybrid Escapes and extend its hybrid technology to other models, like midsize sedans and the Focus, because it cannot get the drive train components, which are made in Japan, I believe by a member of the Toyota keiretsu group.

If I read Billy Ford correctly, he wants to start making hybrid components here in the U.S. so that he can expand the hybrid line. If subsidizing this endeavor with tax deductions and credits, I'm willing to do it, because I think that Ford is on the right track, however belatedly, and making those components here would produce jobs, reduce our trade imbalance, and, in the end, reduce our gasoline consumption.

GM is a more complicated case, but I'd be willing to listen to what they have to say, particularly if the GM board ousts the current leadership.

Otherwise, there's room for lots and lots of criticism of the leadership of the U.S. auto companies.

...is probably the most forward-thinking executive in the US automotive industry today. People should definitely listen to what he says, even if they don't necessarily agree with it.

Why don't we offer the incentives to foreign companies that agree to use union labor and establish long term plans for production in this country and export to other countries?
Why keep giving money to these losers? They have proven they don't have the will or the foresight to compete here or abroad.

Ford is quite successful abroad.

That's the point I'm trying to make.

In the past 15 years these companies have had record profits from sales here in America. What happened to the money? It's all gone into buying Volvo, Saab, Jaguar and large share holdings in Mazda and Isuzu and other corporations in Korea, China, Indonesia and South America. If they need money they should cash in their holdings and invest it here. If they won't then tough cheese. Find another company that's interested in doing business for the long term and forget these slugs.

The U.S.-Japanese connections go way back to the first energy crisis, and include plants here. The Mazda-Ford partnership has worked out well for both, and is likely to continue. It would be great if some of their parts products were expected. Perhaps they are.

GM and Toyota jointly own the NUMMI plant in California that now produces the Matrix/Vibe twins. It used to produce the Corolla/Prizm twins.

The European acquisitions seem very stupid to me, too.

...because their American cars are rubbish. Hell, they can't even import their better-built European Ford-branded cars because nobody in the US will buy them. At least with Volvo you get a massive markup when you import them to the US. And selling off their profitable overseas businesses is not going to do them one bit of good, in America or anywhere else.

Toyota can build quality in this country. Why not GM & Ford? Don't you see what's going on? In the bad times we bail them out and in the good times they spend the money overseas. Enough with these bums. If we have to pay to have autos made in this country then lets bring in some competition and and put an end to their little game.

fuckers!