WINDSOR, Ont. — Canadian Auto Workers national president Ken Lewenza is blasting as "obscene" the multimillion-dollar compensation packages handed out to senior Ford executives in the U.S.

It was widely reported this week that Ford Motor Co. awarded Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally $56.5 million U.S. in stock and Executive Chairman Bill Ford $42.4 million U.S. in stock.

"It is obscene for any individual executive to take home many tens of millions of dollars in personal compensation as a result of the performance of an entire large corporation," fumed Lewenza in a release. "It is this kind of individualistic greed and excess that contributed to the recent bubble collapse in the U.S. and the resulting global recession. Have we learned nothing from that experience?"

The payout is particularly galling, said Lewenza, because there are already about 1,300 Ford workers on layoff in Canada and Ford will close its St. Thomas, Ont., facility later this year.

Windsor Star