Ford Mints Money from Workers’ Sacrifices

Dec 12, 2011

Ford Motor Company revealed where they will send the money that they squeezed from workers in last October’s contract. Ford will resume paying a five-cent dividend on its stock in 2012.

Five cents per share sounds small, until it’s multiplied by millions. Take Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally, for instance. He holds 17.2 million shares. His 17.2 million nickels will ring up to $860,000, every three months, for doing nothing but holding stock–an extra 3.4 million dollars a year!

Mulally can’t be allowed ahead of his bosses, however. The Ford Family owns 70.85 million shares of special Class B stock. Their 70.85 million nickels will net them 3.54 million dollars, every three months, 14.2 million a year. In addition they will get undisclosed dividends on the undisclosed amount of common stock they sit on.

But it’s all small potatoes compared to the Wall Street funds that own blocks of hundreds of millions of shares. State Street Bank and Trust, Ford’s largest institutional investor, holds 398 million shares and will bank 19.9 million dollars per quarter–merely for holding shares. No labor required!

Evercore Trust with its 271 million shares will bank 13.55 million bucks; BlackRock’s 195.2 million shares will net it 9.76 million bucks. Every three months.

And there are many, many more of these gluttonous hogs lined up at the trough.

This is exactly what becomes of the concessions extorted from workers in these last contracts, extorted by using all manner of lies, deceit, treachery, threats and manipulation to get “Yes” votes. Workers must still endure two and three tier wage scales, suffer inhuman work loads and work schedules, fall further and further behind the cost of living, pay more for health care–even give up break time!–merely so that leeches from private equity companies to the Ford Family can stack greater wealth on top of their already incredible wealth.

Unconscionable exploitation!