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Ford and the United Auto Workers Open National Labor Contract Talks

15 June 1999

Ford and the United Auto Workers Open National Labor Contract Talks

    DEARBORN, Mich., June 14 -- Ford Motor Company and
the United Auto Workers union opened negotiations today on a new national
labor contract covering approximately 101,000 U.S. hourly workers.
    The negotiations began with the traditional handshakes across the main
bargaining table at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn.
    Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. and company President and Chief
Operating Officer Jac Nasser made welcoming remarks.
    Peter J. Pestillo, Ford vice chairman and chief of staff; David L. Murphy,
vice president, Human Resources; and Robert H. Marcin, executive director,
Labor Affairs and the chair of Ford's National Negotiating Committee, shook
hands with UAW President Stephen P. Yokich and Ron Gettelfinger, UAW vice
president and director of the union's Ford Department.
    "Ford Motor Company and the UAW have had great success working together,"
Marcin said.  "We are confident that we will find win-win solutions to the
many issues we face."
    The current Ford-UAW contract, a three-year agreement, expires at midnight
September 14.