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Ford & UAW Open Nat'l Labor Talks

14 June 1999

Ford and the United Auto Workers Open National Labor Contract Talks

    DEARBORN, Mich. -- 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 Executive 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.