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Ford offering buyouts to hourly employees

A

Anonymous

Guest
Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will offer buyout and early retirement packages to all 54,000 U.S. hourly workers in an effort to cut more jobs and replace workers with those making a lower wage.

Chief Executive Alan Mulally said the new round of buyouts was negotiated with the United Auto Workers union.

He said the first round would be offered immediately to workers who had been employed at already closed plants in Atlanta, St. Louis, Edison, N.J., and Norfolk, Va. Those offers close Feb. 28.

Employees are expected to leave the company by March 1, Mulally said during a conference call with reporters and industry analysts to discuss the company's 2007 earnings.

The second round of buyouts would go to workers at all other U.S. Ford locations, opening the week of Feb. 18 and closing March 17. Mulally said workers who take packages in this round would likely leave the company starting April 1, with all of them gone by year's end.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
backhoeboogie said:
Some industries are now offering a retention bonus to keep employees.


Who?

One with 54K workers? I doubt it.


This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them. :roll: :roll:
 

Mike

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
backhoeboogie said:
Some industries are now offering a retention bonus to keep employees.


Who?

One with 54K workers? I doubt it.


This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them. :roll: :roll:

Ford has had 1000's of uneeded employees on the payroll for quite awhile as the union contracts have dictated.

The unions have ruined the domestic auto industry in the US.

I say fire their greedy asses without a penny. :shock:
This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them.

They're not loyal to Ford. They're loyal to the union. Just ask them! :roll:
 

P Joe

Well-known member
Mike said:
kolanuraven said:
backhoeboogie said:
Some industries are now offering a retention bonus to keep employees.


Who?

One with 54K workers? I doubt it.


This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them. :roll: :roll:

Ford has had 1000's of uneeded employees on the payroll for quite awhile as the union contracts have dictated.

The unions have ruined the domestic auto industry in the US.

I say fire their greedy asses without a penny. :shock:
This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them.

They're not loyal to Ford. They're loyal to the union. Just ask them! :roll:

I agree, since when was it the company's problem to gurantee you a retirement. Unions are the greatest thing in the world if you are part of them, but the worst thing in the world if you are a business.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
since when was it the company's problem to gurantee you a retirement.

If thats part of the employment and wage package when they hired you- I'd expect them to fullfill their obligation...Many companies and government agencies use retirement plans as a recruitment incentive- and a way to get folks to take jobs that need a great cost output and period for training - and that then want to keep those trained employees sticking around and not having to train new people everyday... Many of these type jobs also are not the highest paying and/or are also not a normal work schedule....

If they can guarantee the CEO a severance package (even if he screws the company up and is fired in a couple of years)- why can't they guarantee the blue collar worker a retirement package for 10-20-30 years committment to them?....
 

hopalong

Well-known member
What gloom and doom spreader ff fails to tell us is that this origanally came about in 2006, and has been sweetened

Ford sweetens buyout deals
Retirement offers for hourly workers hiked by $15K; $35K for skilled trades.
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. will offer more generous early retirement packages to U.S. hourly workers under a new buyout agreement with the United Auto Workers, according to a UAW official briefed on the deal.

Workers eligible for retirement will receive a lump-sum payment of $50,000 if they agree to leave the company, plus full retirement benefits. That is $15,000 more than Ford offered to retirement-eligible UAW workers in 2006.

Moreover, skilled trades workers, who are among the highest paid, will receive a $70,000 buyout payment, or $35,000 more than the previous offer.




Ford will offer buyouts to all 54,000 of its UAW-represented workers in an effort to further downsize the company's struggling North American automotive operations and make way for lower-paid workers it is allowed to hire under the national contract it negotiated with the union last year.

The non-retirement packages are unchanged from what was previously offered. One includes a $140,000 lump-sum payment for workers who agree to leave without any benefits other than the pensions they have already accrued.

Another will pay workers' college tuition for up to four years while giving them half their pay and health insurance while they work toward a degree.

Terms of the new packages were outlined for plant-level union leaders in a conference call Wednesday with UAW Vice President Bob King, head of the national Ford division of the union.

King told union officers that workers will have from mid-February to mid-March to sign up for a buyout.

Most of those who do will leave the company on April 1, but some will be asked to stay longer to ensure that production is not adversely affected.

Ford would not comment on the buyout agreement.

"We plan to make an announcement relatively soon," said Ford spokesman Mark Truby.

On Tuesday, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said the automaker would provide more details of the planned buyouts during a conference call today after Ford releases fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2007.

The UAW did not respond to requests for comment.

While some workers who took retirement packages in 2006 might resent the higher payouts, restructuring experts say Ford had to sweeten the pot.

"The improved offer is necessary because two things have happened since 2006," said Chuck Moore, senior managing director at the turnaround firm of Conway, MacKenzie & Dunleavy in Birmingham.

"One, the overall job market has deteriorated," Moore said, "and two, Ford has successfully executed on some elements of its turnaround plan, giving some people more confidence in Ford's future."

He said it is important for Ford to take advantage of the cost-saving opportunities created by its new labor agreement with the UAW.

That deal, ratified in November, allows the Dearborn automaker to fill up to 20 percent of its hourly positions in the United States with so-called second-tier workers who will receive lower wages and fewer benefits than existing employees, and loopholes negotiated with the union could allow that figure to go even higher.

However, Ford must first make room for up to 5,000 former Visteon Corp. workers it agreed to take back as part of a bailout of its former parts subsidiary in 2005.

Ford is not expected to announce buyout targets, but company sources say they do not expect to get anywhere near as many takers as they did in 2006, when some 25,000 workers signed up for buyout packages.

"Ford is becoming a smaller company and becoming a lower-cost company at the same time," said Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "You can become profitable by becoming small."

You can reach Bryce Hoffman at (313) 222-2443 or [email protected]
 

backhoeboogie

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
backhoeboogie said:
Some industries are now offering a retention bonus to keep employees.


Who?

One with 54K workers? I doubt it.


This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them. :roll: :roll:

Who? The nuke power industry absolutely. Employee stealing is very much alive. You can turn down an offer that is way more than you're worth and they counter with a bigger offer.

There are some others (that the nukes are modeling after) but all I know there is hearsay.
 

TSR

Well-known member
Mike said:
kolanuraven said:
backhoeboogie said:
Some industries are now offering a retention bonus to keep employees.


Who?

One with 54K workers? I doubt it.


This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them. :roll: :roll:

Ford has had 1000's of uneeded employees on the payroll for quite awhile as the union contracts have dictated.

The unions have ruined the domestic auto industry in the US.

I say fire their greedy asses without a penny. :shock:
This is just another ploy by Ford to keep from having to pay out retirement to people who have been loyal to them.

They're not loyal to Ford. They're loyal to the union. Just ask them! :roll:


Yes sir, they just walk around the plants with their hands in their pockets, probably ben doing it for 30 yrs. The hard workers are the CEOs just waiting their turn to cash in, especially if they cn hire some illegals at about half the current salaries/benefits.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
TSR said:
Yes sir, they just walk around the plants with their hands in their pockets, probably ben doing it for 30 yrs. The hard workers are the CEOs just waiting their turn to cash in, especially if they cn hire some illegals at about half the current salaries/benefits.

Half the salary and benefits of some of what those in the Auto industry earn might not be that bad of a deal.

When employees (unions) demand to much, then they have to accept some of the responsibility for the companies failure. The car industry is not the oil industry there is not no big profits floating around out there. They truly struggle most of the time.

Unions can be to much of a good thing at times and cut their own throats. When these auto union workers are working at McDonalds in a few years they would be more than happy to take a pay cut to a fair wage.
 

Tex

Well-known member
aplusmnt said:
TSR said:
Yes sir, they just walk around the plants with their hands in their pockets, probably ben doing it for 30 yrs. The hard workers are the CEOs just waiting their turn to cash in, especially if they cn hire some illegals at about half the current salaries/benefits.

Half the salary and benefits of some of what those in the Auto industry earn might not be that bad of a deal.

When employees (unions) demand to much, then they have to accept some of the responsibility for the companies failure. The car industry is not the oil industry there is not no big profits floating around out there. They truly struggle most of the time.

Unions can be to much of a good thing at times and cut their own throats. When these auto union workers are working at McDonalds in a few years they would be more than happy to take a pay cut to a fair wage.

Don't blame it all on the workers. IF THEY HAD MADE CARS THAT CONSUMERS WANTED, THEY WOULDN'T BE IN THIS SHAPE. THAT IS A MANAGEMENT DECISION, NOT A WORKER GETS PAID TOO MUCH PROBLEM. SOME MANAGERS LIKE TO SPIN IT TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO THINK IT.

The Japanese make and design cars that consumers want. They also, in general, have better relations with their workers because they treat them with respect and keep them in the production decision loop. Some U.S. automakers have only been adversarial, greedy, and downright liars to their workers. They then want to put their failings on the workers and all the promises to them they left unfulfilled. The biggest reason for the success of a union is bad management.

Bill Ford: Market share bleed stops now
New models will stop the erosion, he says, but the company won't do anything "stupid."
By Alex Taylor III, Fortune magazine
January 8, 2006: 7:45 PM EST

DETROIT (FORTUNE) - Ford Motor Co. has lost market share in the U.S. for ten years in a row so, today, Ford Chairman and CEO Bill Ford said his company is drawing a line in the sand.

"I think it's important to stabilize market share," Ford told a meeting of reporters at the Detroit International Auto Show. "We want to stop the slide in '06 and rebuild from there."
Bill Ford, Ford Motor Co. CEO and Chairman
Bill Ford, Ford Motor Co. CEO and Chairman

He also said that the company will show a profit for 2005.

In the past, Ford has said he was willing to concede market share if winning it meant hurting the company's profitability.

Ford's aggressive statement has important ramifications.

Auto companies can basically increase share year by year in two ways: introducing new models and cutting prices on older ones.

Ford's share has slid in recent years because it has moved slowly into new product segments like crossover utilities, and it has been unwilling to match the generous incentives offered on GM vehicles. Last year, it ran up huge losses in its North American operations.

As recently as 2002, Ford Motor Co. accounted for 20.2 percent of the U.S. market. Its market share has slipped about one percentage point a year in the face of aggressive foreign competition since then, reaching 17.4 percent in 2005.

Bill Ford said the company expects to stabilize its position as new models introduced in 2005 -- the Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, and Lincoln Zephyr -- benefit from a full year's production. Ford also said that the company's European brands, like Land Rover, Jaguar, and Volvo, expect to introduce some 20 new models in coming months.

"We have the products in the part of the market that is growing," he said. "The product lineup in '06 is the best we've had."

He added: "We're not going to do anything stupid to stabilize [share]. You can always buy it. We want organic growth."

Analysts aren't so optimistic. Mike Bruynesteyn of Prudential Equity Group expects Ford's share to fall to 16.6 percent in 2006, 16.5 percent in 2007, and 16.0 percent in 2008 because its competitors are introducing more new models than it is.

"We believe that Ford's share loss should be substantial in 2006, owing to an over-aged portfolio of products," he wrote in a report published January 5.
 

Tex

Well-known member
Maybe this is the reason?

Report, Content ID: 33101, Published: 07.12.2004 05:38
Why FORD is losing Market Share
READERS A letter sent from an American Citizen to FORD in March 2004. Why I will not purchase your product.
Betrifft: Automotive Car Manufacturing DAIMLER AG FORD MOTOR GENERAL MOTORS Product Management Strategy Transportation Turnaround United States of America
by WALTERNODELMAN
The author is registered user with YEALD. To get your own profile please become a Recognized Writer. more...
I am responding to an advertisement which I recently observed from Ford Motor Company. I am a potential customer.

I am presently driving a 1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass with 215,744 miles on it. My spouse is driving our new car, a 1989 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with 240,664 miles on it. From YOUR perspective, with a nineteen year old vehicle, and a fifteen year old vehicle - I am a candidate to purchase two new automobiles.

However, I am unemployed. Unemployed people do not purchase new cars. You are the reason that I am unemployed. I am unemployed because of your despicable anti-American practice known as OFFSHORING.

I am writing to tell Ford Motor Company executives exactly why I would NEVER purchase an item with the Ford nameplate.

I am a skilled HIGH TECH IT person with multiple degrees and decades of background in my field. I have worked for United Technologies Corporation, Con Edison, Verizon in Lower Manhattan, etc.

As a result of Osama, I have been unemployed since 9/11. Having not seen a paycheck for two and a half years, certain subjects are very important to me.

I went to the Lou Dobbs CNN website and found proof that Ford Motor Company is a treacherous and unpatriotic corporation.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/
Ford practices that TREASON which is known as OFFSHORING.

CONFIRMATION OF MY ADAMENT POSITION CAN BE FOUND AT . . . .
http://www.HireAmericanCitizens.org/
http://www.zazona.com/
http://www.toraw.org/
http://www.techsunite.org/
http://www.washtech.org/wt/
http://www.AEA.org/
http://www.madinusa.org/
http://www.chasebanksucks.com
http://www.RescueAmericanJobs.org/

Ford Motor Company is an enemy of my country.
Robert Hanson, formerly of the FBI was not the only American Traitor. Today, there are CEO's who are doing more damage to the USA than Hanson ever did. Hanson cost the lives of a dozen of America's intelligence operatives. OFFSHORING is wiping out 2,600,000 Americans, with 70,000 in Connecticut alone according to NBC.
http://www.nbc30.com/nbc30/2190071/detail.html
Ford is more damaging to my country than Robert Hanson.

Osama is trying to destroy my country. Ford is committing the same crime. Ford is doing it for green and black money, in wartime.

To be honest with Ford, I will not purchase another General Motors vehicle, even though I have had decades of excellent service from my present two General Motors vehicles. Why? Offshoring. I will not deal with a company which commits treason against me, my countrymen, and my country.

I will not purchase a Chrysler vehicle because that is a German company and I have issues with putting my dollars into German pockets.

Same for the Japanese. Same reasons.

With 2,600,000 other unemployed victims of OFFSHORING in my country who are understandably as angry as I am, and who are reacting as I am, -- from my perspective, your company is soon to be in serious trouble (and is led by executives too intellectually deficient to comprehend it).

For example, -- rampant importing led to the downfall of others.
National sized anti-American retailers such as Bradleys, Aimes, Caldors, Lechmere, Sound Playground and Zayers - have all been driven out of business by an angry public. Local retailers such as Sage Allen, and D&L (Davidson and Leventhal) likewise. Montgomery Ward was driven into extinction. G Fox has been swallowed up by a competitor. Newmark and Lewis is gone. F A O Schwarz is going into bankruptcy (again, maybe). Likewise, K-Mart. Macy's in New Haven CT is boarded up. Builder's Square is gone. The patriotic American public is thoroughly fed up with anti-American corporations, and none of these closures is much regretted.

Despite your advertising, and my NEED for reliable transportation,
I have no further interest in Ford. Matter of fact, I look forward to the day when I will see your executives on courthouse stairs, in handcuffs, in Orange Jump Suits, with ankle chains.

I may be angry and I may be old fashioned, or even patriotic, - but I will only deal with companies which can legitimately fly an American Flag out on their headquarter's front lawn, - without disgracing MY Stars and Stripes.

I am
Walter A Nodelman [email protected] 860 521-8029 3/8/2004
 
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