Today Ford will report its second quarter earnings for 2007, and analysts expect the Blue Oval to ink another losing quarter in the books for the eighth time in a row. The No. 2 automaker in the U.S., for now, lost $282 million in Q1, and analysts expect Ford's aggressive use of incentives to sell cars, as well as the ever rising cost of materials, to again hurt the bottom line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
There's a silver lining on Ford's dark cloud, however, in that its poor performance is likely to grease the wheels of the United Auto Workers, which is currently in landmark talks with each of the Big 3 domestic automakers over new contracts. Booking an eighth quarterly loss in a row should make crystal clear the fact that concessions are required by the UAW if Ford is to have any shot at avoiding a ninth.
