Ford plan for new hires may create cost disadvantage

Ford Motor Co., seeking a second round of givebacks from the United Auto Workers union, plans to hire new workers in 2010, possibly putting the automaker at a labor-cost disadvantage to U.S. competitors.

"We expect to hire entry-level people in the second half of next year, not a big number, but in specific locations," Joe Hinrichs, group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs, told analysts today in Dearborn, Michigan.

The UAW earlier this year granted General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC a six-year freeze on wages for new workers, among concessions as those two automakers were pushed into bankruptcy reorganization. Ford is meeting with union resistance as it tries to negotiate similar givebacks.

"There isn't a difference right now between GM, Chrysler and ourselves because we don't have any entry-level employees," Hinrichs said. "We have some concerns about what the differences mean longer term and we're having those discussions with the UAW."

Under current contracts with all three automakers, new workers can be paid $14 an hour, about half what UAW members in place before those agreements receive. For Ford, those initial pay rates can escalate, while staying the same at GM and Chrysler under the freeze.

With GM and Chrysler, the union also accepted a no-strike accord until 2015 and fewer job categories.