Ford's Fields says Mazda links are long term

Ford Motor Co (F.N) will continue to have strategic ties with Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) no matter how big its stake in Mazda is in the future, Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said on Friday.

Sources have told Reuters that Ford plans to sell most of its remaining 11 percent stake in Mazda and that trading house Sumitomo Corp (8053.T) and other Japanese business partners of Mazda were in talks to buy the shares.

Fields, who was once president of Mazda, would not confirm the report, but dismissed the talk of some observers who have said that a change in ownership would lead to less cooperation between the longtime partners.

"They're going to continue to be a strategic partner for us no matter what the ownership structure," Fields said in an interview with Reuters, pointing to the joint ventures the companies have in Thailand and the United States.

"We continue to look for ways to collaborate together," he said.

Ford was the only one of the Detroit-based automakers that avoided restructuring through bankruptcy last year and that did not need bailouts from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

It did, however, win the same steep concessions from U.S. and Canadian unions that GM and Chrysler got. The accommodations were aimed at helping the U.S. companies better compete with offshore-based automakers, and included lower wages for new hires.

"Overall the union has helped us a lot through the downturn," Fields said.

"Our labor costs are much closer now to the hourly costs, for example, of the import brands, and as we hire these new entry level workers, which are the lower paid workers, that will shrink the gap and eliminate it," he said.

Ford is set to be the first of the Detroit three to go back to the bargaining table next summer.

United Auto Workers President Bob King has said that his members should be able to share in some of the recent success of the automakers. Fields said it was too early to speculate about the next round of union negotiations.

FORD IN CANADA

Looking to Canada, Fields said he thought staffing levels were appropriate, despite some recent production increases. He added that there would be some strategic hires in the company's Canadian headquarters, focused on sales and marketing.

Ford this year surpassed General Motors Co (GM.N) and Toyota Motor Co (7203.T) to become the No. 1 automaker in Canada.

Canada also recently overtook Germany as Ford's No. 5 market, after the United States, China, Brazil, and Britain.
The deep slump of 2008 and 2009 led Ford, like GM and Chrysler, to cut back its manufacturing operations in Canada.

In July, the company moved to a single shift at its Windsor, Ontario engine plant. Some of the laid off workers were offered jobs at Ford's nearby, newly upgraded Essex engine plant.

The company will shut down its St. Thomas, Ontario, plant after the large sedans being manufactured there now are phased out in 2011.

Ford Canada's main operations are in Oakville, Ontario, where it manufactures the Edge, the Flex, and the Lincoln MKX.