DETROIT — Ford wants to be the lead company to negotiate a new national contract with the United Automobile Workers union that General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles would be expected to follow.
“I like leading. I don’t like following,” said Jimmy Settles, head of the UAW’s Ford division, following an event Monday morning.
And both UAW and Ford officials say they are best qualified to set the pattern for a new agreement when the current four-year contracts expire in September.
“Everybody wants to go first,” Settles said. “Experience matters and I got the most,” he said of his 12 years.
And he appreciates that the executives on the company side have a lot of talks under their belts as well.
Bill Dirksen, head of Ford labor affairs, admits he is senior statesman when it comes to talks, with the sudden departure of Al Iacobelli, the head negotiator at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the recent retirement of Rex Blackwell at General Motors. On the union side of the table, Settles is the only veteran. Cindy Estrada is the new union chief for the GM talks and Norwood Jewel is the new face at the FCA talks.
“We have pretty stable leadership on both the UAW and Ford side, and we feel ready,” Dirksen said. “I think most companies most years prefer to be the lead, and we don’t see it any differently.”
Dirksen notes he is backed by a lot of executive experience because CEO Mark Fields has led the Americas for years; Joe Hinrichs, who is now president of The Americas, had led talks in the past and John Fleming has overseen global manufacturing and labor affairs since 2009.
‘We have pretty stable leadership on both the UAW and Ford side, and we feel ready,” Dirksen said. “I think most companies most years prefer to be the lead, and we don’t see it any differently. We’ll stick to our plan and ultimately the UAW will gravitate to one company for the first agreement.
Executive Chairman Bill Ford said he has been part of the company for talks for decades.
“So on both sides we have experience,” Settles said.
Settles said the two sides talk on a regular basis between contracts but after the formal handshake events next month, the bargaining subcommittees will start meeting and “then it goes non-stop.”
The handshake events start July 13 and conclude with Ford on July 23. Ford will hold its event at a high school in Detroit to underscore the importance of Ford and its employees in the community.
Traditionally, the UAW chooses the lead company with which to concentrate talks on Labor Day and the deadline for the other two companies is extended as they await their turn. Under the leadership of Ron Gettelfinger a decade ago, the UAW changed its tactic and pursued main table talks with all three companies instead of naming a lead company.
Settles said he thinks current UAW President Dennis Williams will return to the practice of picking a company to set the pattern, but he does not know when the choice will be made known.
Sometimes it really pays to be first, sometimes it doesn’t, said Bill Ford, adding, “I’m not really losing a lot of sleep over it.”
Either way, he said there should be no surprises in the talks, given the ongoing relationship between union and company.
Addressing wage tiers is one of the key issues heading into this years’s talks.
