With all the unsettling economic news the last two years, the comeback of the Ford Motor Co. deserves the round of applause CNBC delivers in this special Wednesday night.
CNBC just doesn't spread the applause quite far enough.
Reporter Phil LeBeau showers praise on Ford CEO Alan Mulally, the likable, witty, press-friendly exec who turned the company's balance sheet from deep red ink to bright black.
The year he took over, 2006, Ford lost $17 billion. This year it's looking at a multibillion-dollar profit. It has also made this U-turn, unlike GM or Chrysler, without a government bailout loan.
The company did need loans. It just secured them on its own.
What also fueled the Ford turnaround, though, was tens of thousands of Ford workers who in March 2009 agreed to cut retiree benefits, then forgo year-end bonuses and cost-of-living increases in their existing contract.
Ford estimated this saved half a billion dollars. It also raised the whole issue of labor costs, which is enormously complex - and perhaps for precisely that reason is conspicuously absent from most of this special.
Like other large corporations in many fields, Ford says it needs to reduce labor costs to remain competitive - particularly because Ford's competition in future years will include cars made in countries where workers are paid pennies on the U.S. dollar.
That's why, in the fall of 2009, Ford asked for further concessions. To properly plan ahead, the company said, it needed a firm fix on moderated labor costs and a no-strike guarantee.
The United auto Workers union agreed. The rank and file, however, turned the proposal down - on the same day Ford announced a quarterly profit of a billion dollars.
Workers felt they had shared the sacrifice in hard times and if Ford was making a billion dollars a quarter, they saw no reason they shouldn't share some of the rewards - or at least not have to further sacrifice.
It's an argument with merit on both sides, and just opening that door can feel like stepping into a quicksand pit. But it's central to any consideration of auto production in America, and CNBC barely deals with it.
Instead, the special segues into a long discussion about the dangers of distracted driving and a glowing promotion for new Ford safety features.
Those features are admirable and interesting. They just belong in a show of their own, not an ostensible analysis of the company's financial turnaround and future.
Not only in this TV special, but out on the street, Ford has new respect these days. Driving a Ford is a smart thing, not a sucker's play.
Still, as LeBeau repeatedly notes, this isn't a closed story. It's an encouraging early chapter of a story that's still unfolding.
And it isn't complete without more consideration of the people who make the product.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
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