Ford workers told their CEO ‘none of the young people want to work here.’ So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder’s playbook
福特工人告诉他们的 CEO“年轻人都不想在这里工作。”因此吉姆·法利从创始人那里学了一招
- Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages.
福特 CEO 吉姆·法利在阿斯彭思想节上表示，他从老员工那里了解到，这家汽车制造商的一些年轻员工为了生计在亚马逊上轮班工作。法利说，他借鉴了创始人亨利·福特在 1914 年将工厂工资提高到每天 5 美元的决定，将临时工转为正式员工。年轻人之前由于工资低而回避制造业工作。
Some economists credit carmaker Henry Ford for jump-starting the American middle class in the 20th century when, in January 1914, he hiked factory wages to $5, more than double the average wage for an eight-hour work day.
一些经济学家将美国中产阶级在 20 世纪的兴起归功于汽车制造商亨利·福特，他在 1914 年 1 月将工厂工资提高到 5 美元，是当时八小时工作日平均工资的两倍多。
More than 100 years later, facing the reality of many employees “barely getting by,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said he took a page out of the founder’s playbook.
100 多年后，面对许多员工“勉强维持生计”的现实，福特 CEO 吉姆·法利表示他借鉴了创始人的做法。
The carmaker’s chief executive recognized the need to make a change in his workplace when he spoke to veteran employees during union contract negotiations and learned young Ford employees were working multiple jobs and getting inadequate sleep due to low wages, Farley said in an interview with journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday.
汽车制造商的首席执行官在与工会合同谈判期间与资深员工交谈时，意识到需要改变他的工作场所，他了解到年轻的福特员工由于工资低，要从事多份工作，睡眠不足，Farley 在与记者兼传记作家沃尔特·艾萨克森在阿斯彭思想节上接受采访时表示。
“The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,’” Farley said.
“那些在公司工作多年的老员工说，‘没有一个年轻人想在这里工作。吉姆，你每小时支付 17 美元，他们压力太大了，’”Farley 说。
Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
Farley 了解到一些工人在亚马逊也有工作，他们在亚马逊工作八小时后，再在福特上七小时班，只睡三四个小时。因此，公司把临时工转为正式员工，使他们有资格获得更高的工资、利润分成和更好的医疗保险。这一转型是在 2019 年与美国汽车工人联合会（UAW）的合同谈判中概述的，临时工在福特连续工作两年后可以成为正式员工。
“It wasn’t easy to do,” Farley said. “It was expensive. But I think that’s the kind of changes we need to make in our country.”
“这并不容易，”法利说。“这很昂贵。但我认为这是我们国家需要做出的那种改变。”
Ford’s own decision to double factory wages in 1914 was not altruistic, but rather a strategy to attract a stable workforce, as well as provide a stimulus for his own workers to be able to afford Ford products.
福特在 1914 年决定将工厂工资翻倍并非出于利他主义，而是一种吸引稳定劳动力的策略，同时也是为了刺激其工人能够负担得起福特的产品。
“He said, ‘I’m doing this because I want my factory worker to buy my cars. If they make enough money, they’ll buy my own product,’” Farley said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.”
他说：“我这样做是因为我想让我的工厂工人买我的汽车。如果他们挣到足够的钱，就会买我自己的产品，”法利说。“这在某种程度上是一种自我实现的预言。”
Trouble attracting young trade workers
难以吸引年轻技工
Farley, a proponent of growing U.S. manufacturing productivity to support the essential economy, has advocated for young workers to have strong trade experiences.
作为支持美国制造业生产力增长以支撑关键经济的倡导者，法利主张让年轻工人获得扎实的技工经验。
