After U.S. markets closed on Tuesday, Ford Motor Corp. (NYSE: F) said that the company had made a new contract offer to the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. It is the seventh offer the company has made to the union since August 29, the company said.
The announcement was short on details. Here is how Ford described its latest deal:
Ford’s latest offer provides our 57,000 UAW-represented employees with a record contract and a strong future. Ford’s offer includes unprecedented improvements in wages (putting employees among the top 25% of all U.S. jobs, hourly and salaried) and benefits, product commitments for every UAW factory and job security. At the same time, it preserves Ford’s ability to invest and grow.
Ford’s proposal includes a pay raise of 26% for temporary workers and a general wage increase of more than 20%, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.
The major sticking point may be the UAW’s demand that the master agreement between the company and the union cover employees at Ford’s new battery-making plants for the company’s growing fleet of electric vehicles (EVs). Ford committed to “no job loss due to EV battery plants,” but that is well short of the union’s demand:
The union has taken a hard line on battery plants. While Ford remains open to the possibility of working with the UAW on future battery plants in the United States, these are multi-billion-dollar investments and must operate at competitive and sustainable levels. Three of the four battery plants under construction are part of the BlueOval SK joint venture between Ford and SK On. The workforce for these operations has not been hired. The future employees at these operations can choose to be union represented and enter into the collective bargaining process.
On Tuesday, the U.S. 30-year Treasury note topped 5% for the first time since 2007. The 30-year note closed at 4.95%, higher than the 10-year note’s 4.81% closing level. The two-year note closed at 5.60%.
Rates are skyrocketing because bond buyers are reacting to the Federal Reserve’s recent comments that it could hold interest rates higher for longer. Bondholders are demanding (and getting) more juice for holding U.S. long-term debt. The federal budget deficit will continue to grow, and the Treasury will have to issue more bonds, likely driving long-term rates even higher.
Jury selection in the Sam Bankman-Fried trial began Tuesday. SBF, as he is called, was one of the world’s richest people until he wasn’t. His cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, imploded and some $8 billion in investors’ funds have evaporated — or at least remain well hidden.
Coincidentally, Michael Lewis’ new book about SBF was officially released on Tuesday. Whether “Going Infinite” will join his other best-sellers, including “Moneyball” and “The Big Short,” remains to be seen, but a wise person would not bet against it.
The estimable Molly White wrote a review of the book, and she is not amused. Here are a couple of her observations:
At no point does Lewis seem to reflect on whether the six months he spent shadowing Bankman-Fried prior to the CEO’s fall from grace — during which Lewis thought he was writing the story of a nerdy tycoon’s rise to unimaginable wealth and influence in a possible new sector of finance — may have influenced his own evaluation of the situation.
To this day, Bankman-Fried claims that the collapse of FTX, and the more than $8 billion in missing customer funds, is all the result of mismanagement and sloppy record-keeping, but not intentional fraud. By writing a book that largely backs up Bankman-Fried’s claims, Lewis seems to be staking his own substantial reputation on this being the truth — or, at least, on the government being unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it isn’t. If Bankman-Fried is convicted in the upcoming trial, Lewis’s book will take an awkward place on the shelves of history.
Read the whole review for details.
A more uncritical look at Lewis’s new book appeared in Monday’s New York Times.
Originally published at 24/7 Wall St.
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