Ford Auto Workers Weigh Buyout Options

Rob Williams smiles at the Final Score Lounge in Brownstown Township, Mich., Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Paul Sancya - AP)

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BAD TIMES

Hard times at Ford, General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler Corp. and their suppliers mean hard times for Michigan, where all three are headquartered and where the auto industry dominates the economy. The state is on track to lose 336,000 jobs between mid-2000 and the end of 2006, the longest stretch of job losses since the Great Depression.

Michigan was the only state to lose jobs for the last year. Its unemployment rate, 6.9 percent in November, was second only to Mississippi. University of Michigan economists expect Michigan's rate to hit 7.7 percent in 2008. The state leads the nation in the number of homes in foreclosure.

No one is untouched. Advertising agencies, high-end restaurants, stores that embroider the backs of windbreakers are all feeling the pinch.

Contracts expire between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three in 2007, and some argue union concessions are the only way the Big Three can compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

"Because Michigan has such a huge concentration of these unionized auto jobs, they dominate the economy," said Donald Grimes, an economist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations.

"The governor is trying to do a lot of good things, so are foundations, but they're small potatoes, in scale, compared to the auto industry," he said. "Nothing is going to overshadow those auto contract negotiations. ... That determines Michigan's future."

He added, "If people realized how generous the labor agreements were, I think they'd be astounded."

Auto workers, who can make $60,000 a year without overtime, and more than $100,000 with it, "know they're never going to make this kind of money again," said Denise Brooks, who has worked for 13 1/2 years at the Brownstown Ford plant. The money, for a family with only one wage earner, isn't as rich as it sounds, she said, but no auto worker starting a new career from the bottom will be able to match it.

"No matter how dirty, or greasy, or poorly they feel they've been treated, when they drive out of the plant in their brand-new Ford, they're a citizen of the world," she said. "They've got a good credit rating. They're used to buying what they want for their children and not having to worry about it."

Brooks, 50, took a package that will give her half her pay, health insurance and up to $15,000 tuition reimbursement for four years while she gets a Ph.D. in psychology.