Ford hit by record $12.7bn loss

Newsflash! Consumers want fewer gas guzzlers, and finally, in 2007, after it's largest loss in its 103-year history, Ford says it gets the message.

Ford had previously put much weight on sales of pick-up trucks and SUVs, or sport utility vehicles, to generate profits.

But a peak in the price of oil last year, which pushed US petrol prices up to $3 a gallon, saw customers abandon gas-guzzling vehicles in favour of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

Mr Mulally said Ford planned to "operate profitably at lower volumes and with a product mix that better reflects consumer demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles".

Living in Texas, though, I'm not sure people here have gotten the message. Big dumb trucks here everywhere you look. Sometimes companies need to be brave and lead the way down the right path, even if consumers are slow to follow at first. Years later, once consumers catch up, companies such as Toyota, Google, and Whole Foods market are years ahead of competitors because they made the right choices early on. Ford? Not so much.

Unions play a part in this as well. It's no longer just "big evil company vs. poor opressed worker class." The reality is companies are not evil, especially the ones putting your kids through college, and American companies don't live in a vacuum. They have to compete with companies like Toyota, whose American-based non-union workers get paid equally, are more satisfied, and have better job security thanks to Toyota's superior marketing strategies.

Toyota workers in the Georgetown plant reportedly earn about $24 an hour, which is slightly less than UAW-represented employees make, but Truth Finders, an anti-union group at the plant, points out that workers are provided 24-hour day care, an on-site discount pharmacy and a credit union, along with other perks like parties for perfect attendance that feature big-name talent like Jay Leno.

Additionally, the old adage that unionized workers make more money than their nonunion peers is less true now than it used to be. According to the UAW, in 1990 unionized autoworkers earned 85 percent more per week than nonunion workers. By 1999, the premium had fallen to 59 percent. In the Midwest and South regions, where auto industry employment is concentrated, inflation-adjusted earnings rose 8 percent and 14 percent, respectively, for union workers; for nonunion work-ers, they jumped 23 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Link