Ford chair Bill Ford warned that a drawn-out strike by US auto workers will help Tesla, Toyota and Chinese carmakers and “devastate” local communities across America, days after the US carmaker’s most profitable plant was hit by a walkout.
Last week, the United Auto Workers — who is also striking at General Motors and Stellantis seeking better pay — escalated its strike to include Ford’s Kentucky factory, its most profitable facility.
With the walkout entering its fifth week, Ford warned on Monday that losing a country losing its auto industry could presage the loss of its entire industrial base.
“Toyota, Honda, Tesla and the others are loving this strike because they know the longer it goes on the better it is for them. They will win, and all of us will lose,” Ford said, in a rare intervention from the great-grandson of Henry Ford.
