the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 11, 2022
Ford CEO Jim Farley was recently interviewed in the Detroit Free Press about the future of the auto industry. He said that they are planning for a future in which the prices of vehicles will be so high that many people will not be able to afford their own vehicle. Farley said “electrification is going to make it worse, actually.” Ford plans to make even higher profits on each vehicle sold and then make money off of ride-sharing. So what is Farley telling autoworkers that they are planning for our future? Fewer vehicles built means fewer jobs for autoworkers, or at least that is their plan. We need to have our own plan to fight for our jobs.
The average price of a new vehicle today is $45,596. The average transaction price for a 2022 pick-up is $54,949. Many of us can’t even afford to buy a new vehicle right now. The future that Ford is planning would mean that none of us could afford to buy the vehicles that we build. Farley is threatening our future livelihood. We need to understand and act accordingly.
Farley also said that, as Ford’s transitions to more electric vehicles, many of the salaried engineers who currently work on gas-powered vehicles are expendable and will not be retrained to work on electric. They will just be thrown out the door and Ford will hire new engineers. Ford can be just as cold-blooded with salaried workers as they are with hourly.