Ford Motor Co. late Tuesday said it has a new labor proposal on the bargaining table, calling it its “seventh and strongest” offer and promising no job losses due to EV battery plants.
Shares of Ford edged edged up 0.2% in premarket trading Wednesday, after falling 3.9% amid a three-day losing streak through Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, GM and Ford said they laid off more workers as a knock-off effect of the UAW strike.
Some 25,000 United Auto Workers members have been on strike for nearly three weeks. The union has called on workers to strike at select Ford, General Motors Co.
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Union representatives did not immediately return a request for comment.
The offer will be “costly” for Ford, but “preserves Ford’s ability to invest and grow,” the automaker said.
Ford said it remains “open to the possibility” of working with the UAW on future U.S. EV battery plants, but that “these are multibillion-dollar investments and must operate at competitive and sustainable levels.”
Ford last week stopped work on a Michigan EV battery plant, a $3.5 billion investment.
“As Ford has made clear, none of our employees, including powertrain employees, will lose their jobs due to our battery plants during” the life of the four-year contract, the company said. “In fact, for the foreseeable future, we will have to hire more workers as some workers retire, in order to keep up with demand for our ICE products.”
Ford stock has gained nearly 4% year to date, compared with an advance of about 10% for the S&P 500 index SPX.
