Ford's Kentucky pivot is an olive branch to Trump
The Wall Street Journal. Christina Rogers, John D. Stoll
5 hrs ago
Bill Ford’s phone call is the latest move by a business leader to thaw tension after Trump’s comments on trade.
One of the U.S. auto industry’s best-known figures has extended an olive branch to President-elect Donald Trump by informing him the car maker won’t move a small amount of production to Mexico, the latest effort by a business leader to thaw tension stemming from the incoming administration’s position on key issues, including global trade.
Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and chairman of Ford Motor Co., called Mr. Trump on Thursday to tell him the company was reversing course on a plan to eventually relocate Lincoln sport-utility production from Kentucky to a factory south of the U.S. border. The auto maker is sticking with its $1.6 billion construction of a new small-car plant in Mexico, but is signaling confidence in its ability to work with Mr. Trump on making U.S. manufacturing more attractive to multinational companies.
Mr. Trump overplayed Ford’s decision in a tweet about the conversation he posted to his Twitter account Thursday night, suggesting Ford would no longer relocate a Lincoln plant from Louisville to Mexico. The Dearborn, Mich., company only wanted to move one model to Mexico in this case, and it never intended to close the Kentucky plant or cut jobs, according to company and union officials.
Officials working on Mr. Trump’s transition team didn't return requests for comment.
Mr. Ford’s outreach reflects a broader move by business leaders to mend fences with the president-elect after a brutal campaign. Following the election, Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields sent a congratulatory letter to Mr. Trump even after the New York businessman had repeatedly criticized the auto maker’s plan to relocate Ford Focus production from Michigan to Mexico.
Other companies made similar pushes. International Business Machines Corp. CEO Ginni Rometty published an open letter to Mr. Trump this week offering support for his policies, even after the president-elect criticized IBM and other companies for moving U.S. jobs overseas.
Dish Network Corp. Chief Executive Charlie Ergen has said a Trump administration would bring a “lot of positives for business,” including infrastructure spending and reduced corporate-tax burdens. Caterpillar Inc., a maker of construction and mining equipment, applauded Mr. Trump’s pledge to boost infrastructure spending.
Some of the outreach has come with a downside.
Sneaker maker New Balance Athletic Inc. publicly backed the president-elect’s antitrade stance, welcoming Mr. Trump’s election as a reprieve from the policies of President Barack Obama. New Balance’s position, however, has incited a social media backlash, with hundreds of consumers posting that they’d throw out their sneakers.
Mr. Trump’s complaints concerning Ford reflect broader criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which some blame as the culprit for job loss in manufacturing sectors like automobiles. Mr. Trump has proposed a 35% tariff on autos and other products imported from low-cost countries such as Mexico. Mr. Fields said earlier this week that policy would be bad for his industry and the broader economy, but insisted he and the president-elect share the same objective of boosting the U.S. economy.
In making the Lincoln decision, Ford said it was “encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States.”
Ford’s change of plans is largely symbolic and is similar to arrangements it has been making with the United Auto Workers for decades as the union lost members amid perpetual restructuring efforts by Detroit’s Big Three.
The auto maker had planned to move the Lincoln MKC, a small sport-utility sold in low volumes that shares components with the popular Ford Escape.
The factory wasn’t in danger of closing or shedding jobs. Rather, Ford was moving MKC production to make room for building more Escape crossovers, the company’s second-best selling model.
Still, keeping the Lincoln output in Kentucky means Ford will make future investments in tooling or other factory enhancements needed to make the MKC in the U.S. rather than reroute that capital to Mexico. And it is a win for its hourly workers, about one-third of whom are estimated to have voted for Mr. Trump, according to preliminary UAW figures.
Even though Ford builds more than 10 Escapes in Kentucky for every Lincoln that rolls down the assembly line, keeping the MKC nameplate in an American factory is meaningful to the UAW, which has sided with Mr. Trump’s Nafta position. Mr. Trump’s ability to identify with concerns held by workers in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania or Ohio helped propel him to victory in early November.
UAW officials were slated to meet with Ford executives Friday to discuss the change in plans.
For the union, retaining production of even the lowest-volume of cars is a priority because it provides a hedge if the market should shift away from one of the other products UAW workers assemble. This is an argument UAW officials have repeatedly made as Ford and other auto makers, including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and General Motors Co., sink deeper investments into Mexico for the production of vehicles, including less profitable small cars.
source
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/fords-ken...id=UE07DHP
The Wall Street Journal. Christina Rogers, John D. Stoll
5 hrs ago
Bill Ford’s phone call is the latest move by a business leader to thaw tension after Trump’s comments on trade.
One of the U.S. auto industry’s best-known figures has extended an olive branch to President-elect Donald Trump by informing him the car maker won’t move a small amount of production to Mexico, the latest effort by a business leader to thaw tension stemming from the incoming administration’s position on key issues, including global trade.
Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and chairman of Ford Motor Co., called Mr. Trump on Thursday to tell him the company was reversing course on a plan to eventually relocate Lincoln sport-utility production from Kentucky to a factory south of the U.S. border. The auto maker is sticking with its $1.6 billion construction of a new small-car plant in Mexico, but is signaling confidence in its ability to work with Mr. Trump on making U.S. manufacturing more attractive to multinational companies.
Mr. Trump overplayed Ford’s decision in a tweet about the conversation he posted to his Twitter account Thursday night, suggesting Ford would no longer relocate a Lincoln plant from Louisville to Mexico. The Dearborn, Mich., company only wanted to move one model to Mexico in this case, and it never intended to close the Kentucky plant or cut jobs, according to company and union officials.
Officials working on Mr. Trump’s transition team didn't return requests for comment.
Mr. Ford’s outreach reflects a broader move by business leaders to mend fences with the president-elect after a brutal campaign. Following the election, Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields sent a congratulatory letter to Mr. Trump even after the New York businessman had repeatedly criticized the auto maker’s plan to relocate Ford Focus production from Michigan to Mexico.
Other companies made similar pushes. International Business Machines Corp. CEO Ginni Rometty published an open letter to Mr. Trump this week offering support for his policies, even after the president-elect criticized IBM and other companies for moving U.S. jobs overseas.
Dish Network Corp. Chief Executive Charlie Ergen has said a Trump administration would bring a “lot of positives for business,” including infrastructure spending and reduced corporate-tax burdens. Caterpillar Inc., a maker of construction and mining equipment, applauded Mr. Trump’s pledge to boost infrastructure spending.
Some of the outreach has come with a downside.
Sneaker maker New Balance Athletic Inc. publicly backed the president-elect’s antitrade stance, welcoming Mr. Trump’s election as a reprieve from the policies of President Barack Obama. New Balance’s position, however, has incited a social media backlash, with hundreds of consumers posting that they’d throw out their sneakers.
Mr. Trump’s complaints concerning Ford reflect broader criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which some blame as the culprit for job loss in manufacturing sectors like automobiles. Mr. Trump has proposed a 35% tariff on autos and other products imported from low-cost countries such as Mexico. Mr. Fields said earlier this week that policy would be bad for his industry and the broader economy, but insisted he and the president-elect share the same objective of boosting the U.S. economy.
In making the Lincoln decision, Ford said it was “encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States.”
Ford’s change of plans is largely symbolic and is similar to arrangements it has been making with the United Auto Workers for decades as the union lost members amid perpetual restructuring efforts by Detroit’s Big Three.
The auto maker had planned to move the Lincoln MKC, a small sport-utility sold in low volumes that shares components with the popular Ford Escape.
The factory wasn’t in danger of closing or shedding jobs. Rather, Ford was moving MKC production to make room for building more Escape crossovers, the company’s second-best selling model.
Still, keeping the Lincoln output in Kentucky means Ford will make future investments in tooling or other factory enhancements needed to make the MKC in the U.S. rather than reroute that capital to Mexico. And it is a win for its hourly workers, about one-third of whom are estimated to have voted for Mr. Trump, according to preliminary UAW figures.
Even though Ford builds more than 10 Escapes in Kentucky for every Lincoln that rolls down the assembly line, keeping the MKC nameplate in an American factory is meaningful to the UAW, which has sided with Mr. Trump’s Nafta position. Mr. Trump’s ability to identify with concerns held by workers in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania or Ohio helped propel him to victory in early November.
UAW officials were slated to meet with Ford executives Friday to discuss the change in plans.
For the union, retaining production of even the lowest-volume of cars is a priority because it provides a hedge if the market should shift away from one of the other products UAW workers assemble. This is an argument UAW officials have repeatedly made as Ford and other auto makers, including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and General Motors Co., sink deeper investments into Mexico for the production of vehicles, including less profitable small cars.
source
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/fords-ken...id=UE07DHP
