Ford, UAW Unveil Workplace Programs to Aid Employees

Responding to the changing family needs of their employees and members, Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers have announced the creation of a Family Service and Learning Center program that includes around-the-clock child-care facilities and a concierge service to help working families find services ranging from plumbers to travel planning.

“Social issues are business issues,” Ford Chairman Bill Ford said Tuesday. He said companies that deal with the social concerns of their employees are at a competitive advantage in the workplace.

The program is an outgrowth of Ford’s 1999 contract negotiations with the UAW. Those labor talks also led to the company’s decision this year to provide computers and Internet access to all Ford employees.

Neither the company nor the union would say how much the new program will cost. Ford President Jacques Nasser said 29% of the costs will be picked up by Ford and Visteon, the former Ford parts division that has been spun off into a separate company. The balance of the cost will be paid from a joint fund created by Ford and the UAW in 1984 to finance various social programs.

Nasser said the program is permanent and does not depend on the company’s labor contract to continue. “This is a long-term commitment,” he said.

Child care, particularly for those parents who have small children and are engaged in shift work, was a major focus of UAW negotiations last year. The new program will provide around-the-clock child care for all factory shifts five days a week. Company officials said child care could be extended to seven days a week if demand warrants.

The plans call for construction of 30 centers in areas with the greatest number of Ford employees; 13 of the centers will have dedicated child-care facilities. The first centers will be built in the Detroit, Cleveland, Louisville, Ky., Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., areas.

Although other companies have some of the programs now being offered to Ford employees, Nasser said the Ford-UAW program is unprecedented because it “integrates all the aspects [of other corporate programs] under one umbrella.”