Two U.S. senators have written a letter to the CEO of Ford Motor Co. regarding the termination of its contract with auto carrier Jack Cooper, but the letter goes no further than strongly requesting the company fulfill its commitments.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, both Republicans, said in the letter that the surprise decision to terminate the contract with Jack Cooper “threatens the livelihoods of nearly 2,000 dedicated union workers and their families, casting a dark shadow over Ford’s claimed commitment to ‘serving all of our stakeholder groups.’”
Drivers at Jack Cooper are organized by the Teamsters.
But the demands in the letter do not come with threats, as it is unclear what the U.S. government could do to inject itself into Ford’s (NYSE: F) decision to end its relationship with Jack Cooper. In fact, the word “demand” does not appear in the letter.
“We request, at a minimum, that you confirm Ford Motor Company intends to fulfill its legal obligations with respect to termination costs, pursuant to all applicable laws, resulting from Ford’s termination of its Jack Cooper contract,” the letter says. “More importantly, we expect Ford to address this matter with the seriousness it warrants and provide a detailed explanation for its actions, not only to the affected workers but also to their families and communities who are now burdened with uncertainty and hardship.”
The letter adds, “At this point, one must question whether Ford is abandoning its historical commitment to American workers and sacrificing quality and reliability in favor of cost-cutting.”
Sens. Marshall and Hawley also ask that Ford respond to the letter by next Tuesday, with an explanation of why the Jack Cooper contract ended so abruptly.
Jack Cooper’s headquarters is in Kansas City, Missouri, Hawley’s state but right across the Missouri River from Kansas.
Jack Cooper officials have said they were notified of the contract’s cancellation on Jan. 2, with a 30-day notice of the termination. They also said they had no prior warning that such a move might be coming.
Not dead yet?
The letter comes alongside stirrings from Jack Cooper and its drivers that the company does not believe the relationship between the carrier and the automaker is dead beyond hope. The 30-day notice period ran out in recent days.
In a post on the Teamsters Facebook page, the union said two officials met with the CEO of Ford to discuss the situation at Jack Cooper.
But the post did not identify CEO James Farley by name. Sources close to Ford said the meeting didn’t occur; sources on the Jack Cooper/Teamsters side of the divide say it did happen though there are other suggestions it may have occurred with a Farley team member rather than the CEO himself.
The Teamsters officials who were said in the post to have met with the Ford officials were General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman and Teamsters Carhaul Director and Central Region International Vice President Avral Thompson. The meeting was “to push back against the once-iconic company’s job-killing contract cancellation with Jack Cooper,” the Facebook post said. (There was no concurrent news release from the Teamsters to align with the Facebook post.)
Thompson was quoted as saying, “We have more work to do, but we are hopeful that [the] meeting was a step in the right direction.”
A spokeswoman for Jack Cooper said the company was “very gratified by the support of the senators, and we will continue to work to try to save these jobs. We hope Ford will come back to the table.”
Asked about the meeting, a spokeswoman for Ford reiterated an earlier statement: “We do not comment on our contracts or relationships with individual suppliers. We manage supplier relationships in line with our sourcing strategy, designed to enable us to best serve our customers.”
Jack Cooper officials have blamed a desire by Ford to keep itself as separated from union employees as possible, a claim that Ford officials privately have pushed back on.
Jack Cooper has not claimed that the cancellation was a violation of the contract.
“This decision disrupts lives and erodes the community’s trust in what is supposed to be a
paradigmatic American company,” the senators wrote. “Yet, the workers at Jack Cooper and their families are still waiting for answers.”
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