Media advisory for immediate release
Ford Exec Compensation Shows No Lesson Learned from Recession, CAW President says
March 9, 2011
(Toronto) CAW President Ken Lewenza is reacting with frustration to today’s news of exorbitant compensation at Ford Motor Company for Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford.
Mulally received $56.5 million in stock, and Ford $42.4 million in shares for the automaker’s turnaround.
"It is obscene for any individual executive to take home many tens of millions of dollars in personal compensation as a result of the performance of an entire large corporation,” said Lewenza. “It is this kind of individualistic greed and excess that contributed to the recent bubble collapse in the U.S. and the resulting global recession. Have we learned nothing from that experience?"
Lewenza said that these inflated compensation packages are particularly offensive given the fact the company will close its St. Thomas facility later this year and already have approximately 1,300 workers in Canada on lay-off.
"Autoworkers, and the communities in which they live, have experienced incredible loss, insecurity, and belt-tightening in recent years. When Ford closes its St. Thomas plant later this year, another 1,300 hard-working families will be devastated.
How Ford's board of directors can pay out $56.5 million to one individual, while this company is jeopardizing the future of thousands of Canadian families, is simply beyond me."
