Bob King's Posturing

The UAW's president, aptly named Bob King, is out in the press landing punches before the first bell.

"I like Alan Mulally. But I just think it's morally wrong," said King, who assumed the leadership of the union last year. "It creates problems for Ford in both the salaried work force and the hourly work force. It seems like one individual is getting all of the gain."

This is typical left wing progressive posturing, setting up class envy as a wedge between the UAW's hourly workers and the managers of the auto companies.

"It seems like one individual is getting all of the gain". What?!? What about the shareholders? From a low of around $1.60, Ford's stock price has recovered to near $15. That is billions of dollars of value returned to stockholders, many of whom happen to be in the UAW. Not to mention jobs saved, direct and indirect. Ford dealer's didn't get crushed the way GM and Chrysler dealers did.

Alan Mullaly, though not single handedly, was a key player in keeping Ford from going bankrupt along with GM and Chrysler. As such, he is very valuable--CEOs who can save companies and preserve billions of dollars of shareholder value are not exactly hiding under every rock. Successful CEOs, like sports stars, have a market value. If Ford didn't offer Mullaly a generous performance based pay package, maybe he wouldn't have come from Boeing to save Ford. Maybe he would have been snapped up by some other company in need of a turn-around.

Maybe Ford would have gone under.

By the way, when was the last time you heard Bob King railing against the excessive pay of his unionized brethren, the professional football players of the NFL?