Ford employees ask the company to stop making police cars

[Mike Mercury]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/8/21...t-george-floyd

Employees inside Ford have asked the company’s leadership to stop making and selling police vehicles, according to Jalopnik. In response, Ford CEO Jim Hackett has told employees in a letter that he doesn’t think it’s “controversial that the Ford Police Interceptor helps officers do their job” and that Ford will continue the business.

The internal discussion, which Ford confirmed to The Verge, comes as the country is gripped by national movements for racial justice and against police brutality that were sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

Ford is far and away the leading automaker in the US when it comes to making and selling specially-designed vehicles for law enforcement, making up some two-thirds of the market. While it’s not a big source of the company’s annual revenue (which was $156 billion in 2019), Ford has long maintained that its overall lineup benefits from new technologies that get tested in the police vehicles (like hybrid electric drivetrains, for example).

The national protests, though, have inspired some Ford employees to rethink the company’s relationship with police. The issue has been brought up at recent town hall meetings, and now employees — including Black workers who are part of Ford’s African Ancestry Network (FAAN) employee resource group — have circulated a letter asking the company to “cease development, production, and sale of all custom police vehicles and products.”

Other employees have since signed onto the letter (though it’s unclear how many) and they want the company to take some kind of action by July 15th, according to Jalopnik. “Our resources can and should be diverted to other forms of first response and public safety,” the employees wrote.

But the same couldn’t really be said for the transportation industry (save for bike companies, which are split on the matter), even though some of the most horrific videos to go viral in the last two months featured protestors being run over by Ford police vehicles.

This is one reason why employees inside Ford are now arguing that the company should sever its relationship with police. “We cannot claim to support the fight against systemic racism while supplying and supporting the very systems that perpetrate violence against Black Americans,” the group wrote, according to Jalopnik.

They continued:

Throughout our history, the vehicles that Ford employees design and build have been used as accessories to police brutality and oppression. We know that while many join, support, or supply law enforcement with good intentions, these racist policing practices that plague our society are historic and systemic — a history and system perpetuated by Ford for over 70 years — ever since Ford introduced the first-ever police package in 1950. As an undeniable part of that history and system, we are long overdue to “think and act differently” on our role in racism.

When Hackett publicly addressed the nationwide protests in early June, he said “[t]here are no easy answers,” and that Ford is “not interested in superficial actions.” Hackett said that “[t]his is our moment to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just and inclusive culture that our employees deserve.”

But in his internal letter to employees, Hackett defended the company’s business of making vehicles for police. And he argued that Ford’s police cars, SUVs, and trucks could make those police officers “safer and more accountable” — though without going into detail:

The issues plaguing police credibility have nothing to do with the vehicles they’re driving.

Hackett also said that taking away Ford’s specially-built vehicles “would be doing harm to [police officers’] safety and making it harder for them to do their job.”

He wrapped his letter by thanking employees for speaking up, but saying that Ford won’t change course. “I do appreciate people speaking their mind to me on this issue – it helped me generate this note to explain why we are continuing our commitment to police forces all over the world in our trusted products,” he said.

[Cybercowboy]

Wait to you see what's in the democrats "Can't Breathe" act.

[FLEXjs]

People are nuts.

A few years ago the City or Toronto decided to switch from White police cruisers to Grey cruisers.

The Social Justice Warriors went nuts saying the new colour scheme was "too aggressive" and "militarized".

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...itics-say.html

Guess what the most popular colour of cars in Canada is? GREY

Clown World.

[z06psi]

Ford is catching a lot of crap from both sides.

Their namesake is on the Ford Board but now he is also on the Ford Foundation Board.

One sells law enforcement vehicles and the other tears down law enforcement.

Two-face Harvey?
https://www.autonews.com/executives/...undation-board

[Lakeside49]

True, about the Catch 22. I got to know HF III and he’s no radical. FoMoCo abruptly parted ways with the Ford Foundation that Edsel himself started in the ‘40’s due to its disagreements with the new york-based (and, anti-Detroit antics) Ford Foundation board and successfully started the “Ford Fund” to counter it. Recently, the Ford Foundation asked Ford to reengage after watching how Ford has been such a successful leader in helping to revitalize Detroit. Even the dilapidated former train station is being revitalized in its former splendor.
I’m glad there is a Ford now on the Ford Foundation Board to lend at least one vote of sanity to their discussions.


https://amp.freep.com/amp/2928141002

[z06psi]

Originally Posted by Lakeside49

True, about the Catch 22. I got to know HF III and he’s no radical. FoMoCo abruptly parted ways with the Ford Foundation that Edsel himself started in the ‘40’s due to its disagreements with the new york-based (and, anti-Detroit antics) Ford Foundation board and successfully started the “Ford Fund” to counter it. Recently, the Ford Foundation asked Ford to reengage after watching how Ford has been such a successful leader in helping to revitalize Detroit. Even the dilapidated former train station is being revitalized in its former splendor.
I’m glad there is a Ford now on the Ford Foundation Board to lend at least one vote of sanity to their discussions.


https://amp.freep.com/amp/2928141002

As long as the Ford Foundation is the main funder of BLM and other radical groups then Ford will take it in the shorts kind of like Nike.

Guilt by association and with him being just one member it will be hard for him to change that. He might be regretting his decision last year from this year's events.

[The_Dude]

[RMVette]

The insanity keeps spiraling out of control.

[bill_daniels]

including Black workers who are part of Ford’s African Ancestry Network (FAAN) employee resource group

Maybe we need to start ostracizing black separatists. If we're gonna cancel racists, get them fired from their jobs, start here, with the members of FAAN. Fire them for racism.

[Steve_R]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

Maybe we need to start ostracizing black separatists. If we're gonna cancel racists, get them fired from their jobs, start here, with the members of FAAN. Fire them for racism.

Somebody should start a FWAN and see how well that goes over.

[Dan Dlabay]

If this kind of crap keeps up company's like Ford could just go and start building them in Mexico.

[bsmith]

Originally Posted by z06psi

As long as the Ford Foundation is the main funder of BLM and other radical groups then Ford will take it in the shorts kind of like Nike.

Pretty sure Nike is ok with how things have been going.

[z06psi]

Originally Posted by bsmith

Pretty sure Nike is ok with how things have been going.

They be woke.

[Little Red L98.]

Originally Posted by The_Dude

[The_Dude]

They kinda already did when they quit making the Crown Victoria. They did try to kill a bunch of cops with the carbon monoxide injecting HVAC Exploders.
These woke employees should be proud.

[snide]

Ford should fire all the employees who want Ford to stop building the PPVs.

[Lakeside49]

Supervisors are human - they have memories like all of us. Ford is a proud, forward looking company. Performance vs. objectives is the bottom line for everyone, without exception
Lets just leave it at that.

[BADRACR1]

Fuuk 'em. Build 'em. Half of those complaining will likely ride in one at some point.

[Will]

Originally Posted by snide

Ford should fire all the employees who want Ford to stop building the PPVs.

No, they shouldn't. Cancel culture should not exist in either direction.

Ford should ignore those employees' political speech and keep making and selling police vehicles if it is a profitable business venture, and should only discipline or remove employees if they cause disruption/spew politics while they are on the clock and should be working instead.

[bill_daniels]

Originally Posted by Will

No, they shouldn't. Cancel culture should not exist in either direction.

Ford should ignore those employees' political speech and keep making and selling police vehicles if it is a profitable business venture, and should only discipline or remove employees if they cause disruption/spew politics while they are on the clock and should be working instead.

I agree with that. If the employees are disrupting and are corrosive to morale and productivity in the workplace, then get rid of them. If they do what everyone should do, show up, do the work, get paid, go home....rinse/repeat, then leave them alone.

That's probably not the case here, though.