Ford's head of labor affairs to retire

Ford Motor Co.'s vice president of labor affairs, Bill Dirksen, who just helped negotiate a new four-year contract with the UAW, is retiring Dec. 1 after a 35-year career with the automaker.

Dirksen's successor will be Kevin Legel, 51, Ford's director of U.S. labor affairs.

Dirksen, 59, has been Ford's lead negotiator for the past two rounds of bargaining with the UAW and has held a senior role in five sets of talks, dating to 2007. During his tenure as vice president, Ford was able to reach deals that gave it financial flexibility and the ability to use more temporary workers, although it was unable to get the union to agree to measures aimed at curbing rising health care costs.

Dirksen and his labor affairs team were viewed as having a positive relationship with the union and, among other initiatives, agreed to help fight opioid abuse in plants. Ford also has not been mentioned in an ongoing federal corruption scandal that has involved some former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executives and ex-UAW officials who negotiated with FCA and General Motors.

"Ford and the UAW have a great record of working collaboratively to make sure we are competitive and protecting good-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs," Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of automotive, said in a statement. "Bill has been a big part of that process for 15 years and is highly respected on both sides of the table."

Dirksen joined Ford in 1985 and held roles at Ford Credit and in Australia. He joined the company's labor affairs team in 2007 and became vice president in 2014.