UAW shifts focus to Ford for tough challenge

Ford now becomes an uneasy 3rd target for UAW talks

DETROIT ??” With UAW contract talks pretty well wrapped up at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, attention now turns to Ford Motor Co., which is widely regarded as Detroit??™s most troubled automaker and the least capable of absorbing a strike.

While the union has pinpricked GM and Chrysler with strikes, experts warned that Ford??™s situation is so delicate that the company is in need of a special concessionary deal from the union. But that is just the kind of deal that might put the two sides at odds, despite a historically good relationship.

A person familiar with the talks, who did not want to be named because negotiations are private, told the Free Press on Wednesday that the company and union already are parting ways over the issue of job security.

He said Ford has been reluctant to make product commitments to certain plants that would give union autoworkers job security.

???The company doesn??™t want to come out and commit,??? he said. ???I hope we can avoid a strike.???

Ford officials would not comment publicly about the status of talks in Dearborn, which have been on-again, off-again since the union chose GM and then Chrysler as strike targets.

Not everyone says the UAW and Ford are far apart. Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, said Ford and the UAW ???might have gotten most of it done last week.???

Ford officials have been confident that their strong relationship with UAW President Ron Gettelfinger would help ease a deal, especially with Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford talking regularly with the union leader.

But with the UAW deciding on strikes, however short, at both GM and Chrysler, some experts were preparing for the possibility of a protest at Ford. And they were concerned about what it could do to Ford.

???They can ill afford a work stoppage,??? said Van Conway, managing director of Conway, MacKenzie s chances aren??™t regarded as a sure thing, especially as the automaker??™s U.S. sales seem to be settling ??” somewhat precariously ??” at the lower end of its objectives.

???Ford needs everything they can get,??? Conway said.

Source: [url=http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/BUSINESS/710120328/1003]The News Journal[/url]