I’ve long regarded Ford as a more humane company than its automotive rivals. His obscene $27.5 million compensation last year notwithstanding, CEO Jim Farley has for years quietly volunteered at a Detroit homeless shelter and donated a customized 2026 Ford Expedition to Pope Leo XIV, which he paid for out of his own pocket. Executive Chair Bill Ford plays on Ford’s company hockey team, which includes UAW members. Ford supported gay rights long before it was fashionable.
Bill Ford’s commitment to Detroit is undeniable. He spearheaded the redevelopment of Detroit’s Michigan Central Station, on which his company spent roughly $1 billion, and the automaker invested more than $1 billion to build a new headquarters in Dearborn.
By contrast, GM moved critical headquarters functions to Silicon Valley and Seattle, abandoned its landmark Renaissance Center headquarters, relocated more than 4,000 jobs outside Detroit, and is trying to persuade Michigan and Detroit taxpayers to contribute $250 million toward renovating the RenCen while spending $23 billion on stock buybacks.
Ford is the only major Detroit automaker still fully headquartered in its home region, which is why I’m rooting for the company. I’ve been transparent about my affection for Detroit and the debt I owe the city.
My positive impression of Ford was influenced in part by the reporting of veteran automotive journalist Phoebe Wall Howard. I closely followed Howard’s work during her years at the Detroit Free Press, and her Shifting Gears Substack is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the automotive industry.
Howard understands something many reporters have forgotten. Even with all the advances in technology and AI, companies are ultimately run by people, and shining a light on those people often tells you far more about an organization than an earnings call, a press release or a vehicle launch.
A little anecdote can often speak volumes.
Howard recently uncovered the remarkable story of a veteran electrician at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant who was falsely accused of stealing a $1.95 cookie from the plant commissary. I doubt most reporters, particularly auto writers, would have considered the incident sufficiently newsworthy to pursue. That Howard developed the sources to uncover the story is a testament to the trust she has earned over decades covering the industry. Her reporting deserves amplification.
No doubt there will be legions of people who dismiss the incident as just an unfortunate misunderstanding, typical of how corporate cookies sometimes crumble. I see it differently. The incident revealed something deeply troubling about Ford and the UAW.
What follows is my take on Howard’s reporting. For readability’s sake, I’m not continuously attributing every quote and detail to her original story. Howard graciously gave me permission to republish several of her photographs, but she did not review this column before publication. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Kurt Kromm: The Alleged Cookie Thief
The protagonist is a 60-year-old electrician named Kurt Kromm, who spent more than a decade working at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. Although his home was in Kenosha, Wis., he commuted roughly 375 miles every two weeks and maintained an apartment in Louisville while working at Ford.
Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant builds Ford’s high-margin Super Duty trucks, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. It generated $25 billion in revenue in 2023. If Kentucky Truck Plant were a standalone company, its annual revenue would rank it among the largest corporations in America.
Underscoring the plant’s importance to Ford, when the UAW struck Kentucky Truck Plant in 2023, the automaker reached a settlement with the union within about two weeks. It seems reasonable to expect that both Ford and the UAW would have their most experienced leaders focused on such a critical operation. As an aside, UAW President Shawn Fain also is an electrician—a detail worth remembering as the story unfolds.
Kromm likely doesn’t fit the stereotype many Americans have of UAW workers. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., and an advanced degree in mediation from Marquette University in Milwaukee.
In 2025, Kromm averaged 60 hours a week, working the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and he said he received several commendations from Ford for the quality of his work. In addition, Kromm was a member of the plant’s Emergency Rescue Team, for which he received specialized training at Ford’s expense.
“I do my job. I show up to work every day,” Kromm said. “Just before I got let go, they had a Friday where 500 people didn’t come to work. It was nice outside. People don’t show up. They had to shut down the SUV line just to run Super Duty.”
Despite his record and training, Ford fired Kromm and had security escort him from the Louisville factory. His offense: stealing a $1.95 Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie from a factory commissary at 3:30 a.m.
Kromm is diabetic, and he bought the cookie because he felt lightheaded and needed to raise his blood sugar.
Aramark’s High-Tech Vending Machines
Kromm’s cookie didn’t come from a traditional vending machine. Ford employees select snacks and beverages from open shelves and then paid through an Aramark self-checkout kiosk, much like shoppers checking themselves out at a supermarket. Two payment kiosks served the break room.
Kromm selected a $1.95 Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookie and swiped his debit card at one kiosk, but instead of displaying the customary green confirmation screen, the terminal flashed a red error message indicating the transaction hadn’t been processed.
Kromm wasn’t alarmed. Payment glitches were common enough that workers simply used the second kiosk when the first one appeared to malfunction. Believing the first terminal had failed to process his payment, he walked to the second kiosk, swiped his card again and ate the cookie.
Howard also interviewed veteran electrician Victoria Thomas, who said glitches with the Aramark payment kiosks were common and that she knew of other factory workers who had lost their jobs after allegedly failing to pay for snacks and drinks.
Ford knows better than most automakers that technology sometimes fails. What makes this case remarkable isn’t that the kiosk apparently malfunctioned. It’s that Ford apparently never considered that possibility before accusing a veteran employee of theft.
Escorted From the Factory
On Saturday, May 16, a Ford supervisor called Kromm into the office and informed him he was fired for stealing a cookie. Kromm was escorted from the factory by security and wasn’t even allowed to retrieve his tools.
Within days, Kromm provided Ford and his union representative with screenshots showing the $1.95 debit from his bank account.
Kromm also wrote to Mike Fitzsimmons, Ford’s vice president of global labor relations, on Sunday, May 24. Fitzsimmons initially emailed Kromm that Ford would look into what happened.
Rather than accept the evidence, a UAW representative later told Kromm the documentation had to be notarized. Ford ultimately confirmed with Aramark that Kromm had indeed paid for the cookie.
After Kromm was told to get his financial documents notarized, he wrote Fitzsimmons again:
“I contacted you hoping you would do the right thing and just bring me back to work when I showed the charge on my statement. You choose instead to call me a liar and question the validity of my documentation … This malicious and intentional assault on my character, morals, and integrity will not go unchallenged.”
Fitzsimmons joined Ford last fall from Boeing, where he served as vice president of labor relations. He reports to Jen Waldo, Ford’s Chief People and “Employee Experience” Officer. Ford recruited Waldo from Apple in 2022.
Days later, Kromm was told he would be returned to work and made whole for five weeks of lost wages. The UAW told him he would receive roughly $33,000 in back pay. Instead, the checks totaled about $28,000.
UAW’s Advice: Apologize
Kromm believes he was betrayed not only by Ford but also by the UAW. He said a union representative suggested he apologize.
“These (Ford UAW) people appease the company,” Kromm said. “I was at Chrysler for 12 years, and my building chairman Curt Wilson would’ve knocked someone upside the head and said, ‘This is absurd.’ But the (Ford) union kept saying, ‘People go back sooner and have better luck if they’re apologetic.’”
Kromm also wrote to UAW President Shawn Fain and Vice President Laura Dickerson, expressing his disappointment over how his firing had been handled. It isn’t clear whether either responded.
Fain came out of the skilled trades as an electrician at Chrysler—a detail worth remembering as Kromm sought help from the union’s highest-ranking officer.
Howard also sought the UAW’s side of the story. She contacted three UAW communications officials and Vice President Laura Dickerson by phone, text and email seeking comment. None responded.
Ford’s Tone-Deaf Response
This is the response Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch gave Howard when asked to comment:
“We don’t talk about individual cases, but there are times when we look into things and realize it could have been handled differently. When that happens, we try to rectify it. We value our employees and want to be as fair as possible.”
Given the facts Howard reported to Ford, no reasonable person could conclude that Kromm was treated “as fair as possible.”
The irony of Ford’s “zero-tolerance” rigidity is exposed by what the company has failed to detect on its factory floors.
In May 2025, authorities dismantled a criminal enterprise in which a former Ford employee allegedly stole millions of dollars’ worth of new body panels—including hoods, bumpers and taillights—from three Ford assembly plants and sold them on eBay. According to police, the thefts continued for more than two years before they were uncovered.
The contrast is difficult to ignore. Ford was prepared to conclude that an 11-year employee had stolen a $1.95 cookie before determining whether its own payment kiosk had malfunctioned.
Moreover, Farley has repeatedly warned that America faces a “huge crisis” and a chronic shortage of more than one million skilled trades workers, specifically citing electricians. He has said he would be proud if his son Jameson pursued a career in the trades.
That makes Ford’s treatment of one of its experienced electricians all the more difficult to reconcile with the values Farley has publicly championed.
Landed on His Feet
Kromm went to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union hall, which quickly found him a job closer to his Wisconsin home. The new position pays $52.51 an hour, plus a $10-per-hour bonus. At Ford, Kromm earned $48 an hour.
Still, the circumstances under which he left Ford remain painful for him and his wife, Karen.
“Kurt was really proud to work at Ford,” she said, crying. “It’s sad he wasn’t supported by his union. He provides a screenshot of the payment and they don’t believe him? He got his job back because he fought and provided documentation. But to leave Louisville like this? We have relationships there. This has been really hard.”
Remarkably, despite everything that happened, Kromm still speaks fondly of Ford.
“Looking back, I just think that I would have been happy to pay for that cookie again, just pay for it twice. I liked the people I worked with. I think we made a great product. If I could somehow go back two months and just avoid this, I would. I was very happy doing what I was doing. I liked working at Ford.”