Ford Canada seeks equivalent union concessions

Ford Motor Co. of Canada will seek labour cost concessions from its main union that would put the automaker on the same competitive level as rival General Motors of Canada and Chrysler Canada, where workers recently accepted significant cuts in compensation.

Senior officials for Ford and the Canadian Auto Workers plan to meet at an airport hotel today for a regular quarterly business update where the company will press for new savings immediately so it can remain competitive.

“We have to take action to be more competitive and maintain our manufacturing presence in Canada,” Ford spokeswoman Lauren More said.
Full story

Ford needs its own deal with the union — urgently

For Ford, which has not asked for government loans, legacy costs are the main target in its effort to keep building vehicles at its two Ontario plants in Oakville and St.Thomas.
Full story

CAW head Ken Lewenza renews call for content legislation

Windsor, Oshawa, London and St. Thomas were used by CAW president Ken Lewenza as examples of Ontario cities that depend on the survival and prosperity of the auto industry. The comments were made in an April 1 speech to the Economic Club of Canada.

Full story

Is the recession heralding a return to Henry Ford’s model?

THE early part of the 20th century was not an easy time for the Ford Motor Company. Economic downturns were frequent and deep. Shortages of raw materials on the back of the first world war stalled assembly lines. And the motor industry’s supplier network was too small to keep pace with demand, making it hard to ensure that all of a car’s parts were ready for assembly at the right time.
Full Story

Majority of Canadians back auto bailout: poll

BRUCE CHEADLE

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A majority of Canadians are comfortable with billions of dollars in government loans for the ailing auto industry, a new poll suggests.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey found that 56 per cent of respondents supported the notion of “proportional, repayable loans,” while 33 per cent were opposed.

Ontario, the heart of Canada’s auto sector, showed the most support, with 62 per cent in favour of the bailout and just 28 per cent opposed.
Full story.

$4 billion bailout no gift – union bosses

By DON PEAT, JONATHAN JENKINS AND JENNY YUEN
A $4-billion bailout is an investment in the Canadian economy, not a Christmas gift from Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Canadian Auto Workers national president says.
Ken Lewenza told reporters yesterday the two governments did the responsible thing by agreeing to an auto aid package.
Full story

Ontario mayors hail auto bailout

Canada offers $4 billion in loans to automakers
By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA
Ontario mayors welcomed yesterday’s auto announcement but hoped the much-needed aid doesn’t idle too long so it’s stalled out by the new year.
“This has finally happened,” Oshawa Mayor John Gray told the Sun yesterday just after the announcement. “I wished it happened a while ago because it would have lifted a lot of the uncertainty. They have done the right thing and they are trying to preserve our share of automotive production in North America.”
Full story

582,000 Canadian jobs would be lost with collapse of Big Three: report

Demise of auto industry would be ‘economic equivalent of a nuclear freeze’: Bryant

Canada would lose 582,000 jobs within five years if the Big Three automakers completely shut down, according to a report prepared for the Ontario Manufacturing Council, a government advisory panel of industry and labour representatives.

The report, which was prepared by the Centre for Spatial Economics, projects a bleak economic picture for the province and the rest of the country if the automakers were to go out of business.
Full story

Centre for Spatial Economics

Download full report

A bailout that sticks in the public’s craw

DEREK DeCLOET
Globe and Mail Update

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when Rick Wagoner, the auto workers’ unions and the rest of the Detroit apparatus lost their grip on the public. Maybe it was when they admitted, during a mid-November trip to Washington to beg for money, that they’d flown there on corporate jets. Or maybe it happened long before that.
It doesn’t matter now. What matters is that the auto industry has lost its ability to sway opinion. What’s good for General Motors is no longer what’s good for America. That’s what Americans say, at least.
Full story

Why the North American auto industry is in trouble

From Richard Patton
This is a video of a new Ford plant in Brazil.
Talk about “just in time” inventory controls.
No wonder the North American auto industry is in big trouble.
One look at this and you will be able to tell why there will probably never be another one built
in the USA or Canada.
It will also point out why more assembly plants will go offshore.
View video
Pay attention to the last few words. It says a lot!

Lack of will leaves city absent at table

Ian McCallum

Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis braved the elements. So did Woodstock Mayor Michael Harding and Mayor Mel Veale from snowbound Strathroy.
Anne Marie DeCicco-Best from London was also in attendance, as 22 mayors from across Ontario met in Toronto last Friday to discuss the battered automotive sector.
Conspicuous by his absence was Mayor Cliff Barwick who, along with Economic Development Corporation CEO Bob Wheeler, begged off attending because of the threat of snow, which never materialized in this area.

Automakers need real leader

By Christina Blizzard
I don’t know if it’s possible to be betrayed by folk you never really trusted in the first place, but that’s the odd situation most of us find ourselves in.

Suddenly, our captains of industry are either in jail for fraud or begging us to bail them out of their own stupidity.
Full story