Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley said Thursday the United Auto Workers union proposal to hike wages by 40%, cut workweeks and add new pension benefits could bankrupt the company.

"You want us to choose bankruptcy over supporting our workers," Farley, in a CNBC interview, said of the UAW proposal. He said there are no current talks, and the automaker has received no counteroffer. "Nothing is going on."

Farley said if the UAW proposal had been in effect since 2019, instead of making about $30 billion in profits over four years, the company would have lost about $15 billion "and gone bankrupt by now."

(Reporting by David Shepardsond; editing by Jonathan Oatis)