DETROIT/WASHINGTON: A senior Ford executive said on Thursday (Oct 12) the automaker is “at the limit” of what it can spend on higher wages and benefits for the United Auto Workers (UAW), and warned the union’s strike at the company’s most profitable factory could harm workers and slash profits.

“We have been very clear that we are at the limit,” Kumar Galhotra, head of Ford’s combustion vehicle unit, said during a conference call on Thursday. “We stretched to get to this point. Going further will hurt our ability to invest in the business.”

Ford is open to reallocating money within its current offer in further bargaining with the union to secure an agreement, Galhotra said. Ford is also working with the UAW on a way to bring workers at joint-venture electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW-Ford agreement, he said.

UAW Ppresident Shawn Fain on Wednesday ordered a strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck factory after Ford negotiators did not present a richer contract proposal.

UAW negotiators turned their attention on Thursday to talks with Chrysler parent Stellantis, union president Shawn Fain said, confirming a Reuters report.

“Here’s to hoping talks at Stellantis today are more productive than Ford yesterday,” Fain wrote on social media. Stellantis did not immediately comment.

The standoff between the UAW and Ford could soon affect thousands of workers who are not among the nearly 34,000 Detroit Three workers Fain has ordered to walk off the job since Sept 15.

About 4,600 Ford workers could be idled because their jobs depend on production of Super Duty pickups and large Lincoln and Ford SUVs at Kentucky Truck, said Ford manufacturing vice president Bryce Currie.

Already, 13,000 workers at Ford suppliers have been furloughed because of earlier UAW walkouts at two Ford assembly plants, Ford supply chain chief Liz Door said. The shutdown of Kentucky Truck, Ford’s largest factory, could push a fragile supply chain “toward collapse”, she said.

Fain and other UAW officials have countered that Ford, General Motors and Stellantis can afford to increase pay for UAW workers beyond the 20% to 23% they have offered, end lower wage tiers for lower seniority and temporary workers, and restore defined benefit pensions lost in 2007 if they rein in share buybacks and cut excessive executive pay.

The walkout at Kentucky Truck was a sharp escalation in the UAW’s slow-building campaign of strikes, and sent a warning to Stellantis and General Motors, whose wage and benefits offers fall short of Ford’s, based on summaries the automakers and the UAW have released.

Fain has scheduled a video address for Friday. In past weeks, Fain has used Friday addresses to order additional walkouts, or announce progress in bargaining.

Fain has yet to tip his hand as to what actions he will take Friday, if any.

Some analysts saw Fain’s decision to shut down Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant, which builds Super Duty pickups and Lincoln Navigator SUVs, as a sign that the endgame could be starting in the nearly month-long round of coordinated walkouts at the Detroit Three.

“Pressure was always needed to force a deal,“ Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally wrote in a note on Thursday.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was closely monitoring the economic impact of the widening strike and still hoped both sides will reach a “win-win agreement.” – Reuters