Like the other major domestic automakers, Ford is in the midst of restructuring its North American operations. As we have learned over the years, ‘restructuring’ is pretty much synonymous with ‘job cuts’, which happens to be the case with Ford. However, unlike its first round of buyouts in 2006, Ford is finding the goings much more difficult with its second round of North American buyouts.
The terms of Ford’s buyouts remain the same, but the Blue Oval is finding it much more difficult to find eligible employees to accept the deal. In 2006, about 34,000 workers accepted buyout or early retirement deals. Thus far through 2008, only 4,000 workers have accepted Ford’s offer.
While the terms of the packages remain the same, the North American economy has changed quite a bit over the last two years. People are wanting to hold onto their jobs in today’s economic climate, making Ford’s job cut targets all that much more difficult.
However, Ford is warning eligible employees that they might not be making that much more on the job than in retirement because of Ford’s cutback of overtime hours. “We make it clear to people they are capped at 40 hours instead of sometimes 60, especially retirement-eligible employees,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs, told Automotive News. “We’ve had a massive reduction in overtime.”
According to Automotive News, Ford is targeting about 8,000 job cuts in 2008. Since 2005, Ford has slashed its North American workforce from 135,700 employees to about 84,700.
09/05, 10:03 AM
posted by:
MercMark
Dear Employee,
Please go away
Love,
Ford
09/05, 10:11 AM
posted by:
Lionwithoutpride
Everyone understands that Ford is a struggling company and that struggling companies have to change the direction they’re headed in, which can be very painful. The problem with stories like these is that Ford is not doing a very good job of communicating WHY they have to cut so much of the blue collar workforce. And, we have rarely heard anything about the white collared workers. Ford needs to show that the cutting is not just going on in the blue collar work force. Americans are paying a lot of attention to which companies are laying off the blue collars because those have always been the backbone of America. Every American knows we need a strong lower-to-middle middle class and they look at the jobs Ford is cutting and it SEEMS like those middle class workers are the only ones affected. We hear the logic that is propounded by Ford’s management, “we have to pay more, not less, to white collar workers, in the downtimes, so that we can get the best people onboard to right the ship!” (totally my paraphrasing of the arguments we’ve all heard from Detroit C.E.O.s). Yet, we all know that there MUST be some white collared workers out there who will work for reduced wages and that maybe even a few of them could pull an Iacocca (no matter what else you think of him, the “pay me $1 till we’re profitable” move was brilliant). I think Ford would be surprised to find just how much good press and good will they could get out of just a few heavy hitters at their company taking drastic (drastic does not mean reducing one’s salary to just a half-a-million, but more like 100-150 thousand dollars with paired down “benefits”). Do white collared workers deserve to make gobs of money? YES, but ONLY WHEN THE COMPANY IS ALSO DOING WELL AND IT’S SHOWN THAT THEY HAVE EARNED IT. Us plebeians don’t see the intrinsic value in company heads who are making tons of promises about the future, excuses about the present and while they seem to continually wallow in failure during the present. Ford needs a damn martyr to justify these blue collar buyouts. Ford doesn’t need the folks who were top of their class at Wharton. Ford needs leaders who are so dedicated that they will put off their rewards until the company can justify passing them out!
09/05, 10:49 AM
posted by:
muttonchops
How have you not heard about white collar reductions? I am white collar and we are constantly hearing about it. I just recently lost some good friends to those reductions. Basically any time you hear about “salaried reductions” thats white collar, and Ford just got done cutting 15%. It was all over the news. Not sure where you were.
09/05, 10:53 AM
posted by:
muttonchops
Oh and btw, even though I am “white collar” most plant workers make more than me. White collar doesn’t just mean management and highly paid executives. It’s anybody who is salaried and sits at a desk and believe me we do a lot for the company as well. And we don’t get “buyouts”, we just get “let go”, because we aren’t union.
09/05, 11:14 AM
posted by:
Lionwithoutpride
Muttonchops . . . Sorry for your pain buddy; but, you need to re-read my comment. I did not deny white collar reductions. Instead, I said we have not heard much about them. And that is the truth of the matter. Leftlane has only run a couple of stories that I can remember about white collar layoffs whereas the stories about the blue collar workforce seem to come out once a month. I do have to apologize for not being clear enough as to my classification. The term “white collar” was too inclusive for my post; but, I think if you re-read it you will note that I am emphasizing the leaders of the company and the pay-scale I noted probably does not cover you or your white collar friends who were laid off. If, however, you do fall into a pay-grade where you make enough to possibly have your salary lowered to $500,000 then you would be part of the problem I am talking about. No one needs $500,000 to survive. If you deserve it, great. However, the current leaders at Ford do not. Again, sorry to be imprecise.
09/05, 11:18 AM
posted by:
Lionwithoutpride
Oh and one more thing Muttonchops . . . not to be too harsh; but, I am in Law school and have breaks in the day to make my silly posts (and they are rather silly). Shouldn’t you be working though? I’m just saying, if you are at work and if I were your boss . . . I’m not sure that you’d be working for me for much longer (it’s not that rare for legal interns to be dismissed for checking their personal e-mail at work . . . and we’re just interns). I really don’t mean to be a jerk (even though I know I am being one).
09/05, 11:18 AM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Lionwithoutpride: Let me simplify this a little more. The blue collar workforce is generally populated with linear thinkers: A is followed by B which is followed by C. The white collar workforce, on the other hand, can best be described by the domino principle: ass A needs to be kissed and then toppled in order to kiss ass B who then needs to be toppled in order to reach ass C. Sounds much the same, you say? I suppose, but the essential difference is the implication that white collar workers have other opportunities they can aspire to should they be ambitious enough and have the foresight to always carry a tube of Chapstick. The blue collar worker also has to check his ass, but only to make sure there isn’t a boot about to kick it out the door. In other words, while the white collar worker is always looking ahead, his blue collar counterpart is usually turned the other way. It’s a lot easier to get blindsided when you don’t see it coming.
09/05, 5:01 PM
posted by:
speedemon
In a nutshell the need of the one outweigh the need of the many.Typical corprate thinking.What a white collar makes in a year I could live of that salary for several years nuff said.
09/12, 7:27 AM
posted by:
smithman
I have a question that most likely can be answerd by anyone of you here and it would be greatly 7appreicated. Can a ford worker that has been with the company for 7 years turn down buyout last offered sometime earlier in 2008 lose there job now effective this date without recieving any kind of buyout? This guy is a good friend but i believe he is not telling the truth..he works at a mich dearborn truck plant and is telling me that he is no longer a ford employee and he his going this saturday to a uaw jobfair? can anyone tell me if he did lose his job and was told he was no longer a ford employee..did he infact take a buyout or could he been given a permenant layoff without a buyout? thanks again to anyone affording me the right information!
Smithman