Pink Slips For White-Collar Ford Workers

Automaker Struggles To Cut Costs In Wake Of Flagging Sales For Its Gas-Guzzlers

(AP)  A top Ford Motor Co. executive told North American white-collar workers Thursday the company wants to cut its salaried work force costs by 15 percent, and some people will lose their jobs.

President of the Americas Mark Fields said in an e-mail message sent to workers the cuts will take place by Aug. 1

"This unfortunately will result in involuntary separations of Ford employees and agency personnel as well as cost savings through attrition and the consolidation of open positions," Fields said in the message.

It's in response to shrinking U.S. automotive sales brought on by $4 per gallon gasoline and a rapid shift to smaller vehicles from Ford's traditional moneymakers - pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said the company had no target number of employees to cut, but each department has a salary cost-cutting goal.

The Dearborn-based automaker had 23,700 salaried workers at the end of last year. The company has cut the white-collar work force in North America by 10,800 since the end of 2005, mostly through attrition, early retirement offers and voluntary buyouts.

Ford announced May 22 that it was cutting North American production for the rest of this year and no longer expects to return to profitability by 2009. The company's sales fell 16 percent in May compared with the same month last year and were down 11 percent for the first five months of the year.

Although Ford made $100 million in the first quarter, it lost $15.3 billion during the previous two years and had to mortgage its assets to stay afloat.

Evans said workers who lose their jobs would get standard severance packages based on their years of service.

The cuts, reported Thursday by the Detroit Free Press, will not be applied uniformly through the company, Evans said.

"Each department has its own task. It's not an across-the-board sort of application," she said, declining to say which departments might see larger cuts.

Ford plans to cut production by 15 percent in the second quarter, 15 to 20 percent in the third quarter and 2 to 8 percent in the fourth quarter. The cuts will primarily affect pickups and SUVs, which have seen sales plummet in recent months due to rising gas prices and the slowdown in new home construction.

The company's F-series pickup truck, the top-selling vehicle in the U.S. since June of 2005, was dethroned last month by cars from Toyota and Honda. F-series sales were off nearly 19 percent through May.

But Ford plans to increase its production of cars and crossovers through additional shifts and overtime. Ford's smallest offering, the Focus sedan, saw sales jump 35 percent in the first five months of this year. The company sold more than 32,000 Focuses in May, and it's scrambling to increase the output of the lone assembly plant that makes the subcompact.

Ford isn't the only company to make cuts because of the U.S. market shift. General Motors Corp. earlier this week announced that it would close four pickup truck and SUV factories. Chrysler LLC made production cuts earlier in the year, and industry analysts say more may be in the offing.

Ford shares fell 7 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $6.39 in late-morning trading.

[floydzeppl]

HINT: Last Oil Refinery built in the USA was in 1976.

Posted by cfin5 at 12:09 AM : Jun 06, 2008
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HINT: Capacity isn''t the main problem, its oil speculators. RINOpublicans trying to get that last dollar before their good times end.

[skyhawk761]

Posted by MCVet at (anytime in the last 6 months)...

You know, I''''ve been reading your posts for some time now, along with all the others, and your posts remind me of a line from American Gangster...

"The loudest guy in the room is the weakest guy in the room."

Why don''''t you give your jaws a rest for a while.


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Posted by crazyivan32 at 07:58 AM : Jun 06, 2008

And your solutions to these problems are exactly what?
MCVet at least offers some facts to the lies that are constantly posted here but you offer nothing but attacks. Why is it the taxpayers responsibility to build new refineries, we don''t build Ford, Chevy or anyone else new factories. Big oil could have built since the 70''s but wanted it there way or no way. Put the blame where it belongs.

[DaveGress]

Willyhenail - you are an Effing idiot. I hope I''m the first and not the last to tell you that.

[crazyivan32]

Posted by MCVet at (anytime in the last 6 months)...

You know, I''ve been reading your posts for some time now, along with all the others, and your posts remind me of a line from American Gangster...

"The loudest guy in the room is the weakest guy in the room."

Why don''t you give your jaws a rest for a while.

[mcvet]

HINT: Last Oil Refinery built in the USA was in 1976.


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Posted by cfin5 at 12:09 AM : Jun 06, 2008
+ report abuse

Were you fascist BORN stupid or did you just get that way??? The PRESENT refineries are running at ONLY 85% you mental midget!! EIGHTY FIVE PERCENT... that means the need is NOT in new refineries but in NEW energy... we need an OPEN and honest energy policy FOR the American People and NOT for the OIL companies... Now let''s sing it out!! SIEG HEIL BUSH!

[mcvet]

Now don''t you folks fret here. John McSame has a plan to create MILLIONS of low paying jobs in the service industry. He''s going to give Corporations all these tax cuts, the SAME one''s Bush gave them, they will use these tax cuts to move EVEN MORE of those well paying jobs off shore thus creating so many jobs for you helping tear down this great nation and move it somewhere so they can pay workers 30 cents a DAY!! Oh but not to worry he''s not going to tax the profits made from those moves and you can forget re-negotiating those Trade Agreements that made all this possible. By the end of John McSame''s first Term you should qualify for THIRD WORLD status and thus qualify for aid from China. Sieg Heil from the GOP!!

[tootall10142]

Another big company lowered a knotch by greed.This is foodfor the soul.U.A.W are greedy and the big three also.They are all getting what is written.The company of fools brings foolish actions by foolish men.

[crater7]

NO MENTION OF FORDS PLAN TO HEAD SOUTH OF THE BORDER AND OPEN A NEW PLANT, WITH CHEAPER LABOR, THEN SHIP THE CARS BACK TO THE GOOD OLE U S OF A, AND SELL THEM TO THE PEOPLE THEY LAID OFF AT A HIGHER PRICE. MORE PROFIT.

GOD "BLESS" AMERICA. NOT "G D" AMERICA.

[cfin5]

HINT: Last Oil Refinery built in the USA was in 1976.

[cfin5]

Posted by Element51 at 11:10 PM : Jun 05, 2008----No joke, just a question: Who was it that inhibited our ability to build new refineries? Wouldn''t this person/s would be able to guess the fuel price trends since they caused the problem in the first place?

[element51]

I can clearly remember the late 70''s when Jimmy Carter tried to warn the nation about what was coming with oil prices. He was laughed at and ridiculed and then the great Ronnie Raygun was elected and any and all attempts at creating fuel efficient cars quickly disappeared. The American people asked for this 4 dollar a gallon gas and had better prepare for it to go higher. Anyone out there want to crack a Carter joke? Should have listened!

[mcv57]

Hey history in the making. The VPs collect early retirements ... it is not like they cannot afford to retire with a million or two in the bank.

[bm6005]

Look let''s put the blame right where it belongs. We were given notice on this 40 frickin'' years ago. Carter was attacked by Ronnie r etard and average Americans because he said we had to change our lifestyle and conserve. The executive branch, CONgress and the American people have known about this problem and collectively have done nothing, zero, zip, nada, nein for over 40 years!!! Wake up people, as POGO used to say "we have met the enemy and he be US"!! We Americans have a tendency to avoid doing anything unless and until it becomes an emergency. Detroit is right, they give the American people what they want and we wanted gas guzzlers, so **** and fix the problem!

[incog-nito]

Don''t lament the auto executives. No matter how bad their decision-making is, they have already awarded themselves ten of millions of dollars in bonuses. It was never about the workers, the company, or the country. It''s their own pocketbook that they''re concerned with. And as far as the executives are concerned, they''re doing very, very well.

[itgranny]

the landscape of american business is so frustrating I could scream. Where''s people''s heads at... especially our leader''s. I grew up in the 70''s, and remember what it was like to be in a gas crisis. Many of the top dogs in these companies remember too, yet they paid no mind to the lessons and went their merry ways to make themselves richer and the country they serve more vulnerable.

If they had continued the research they had started in the 70''s, we could have had hummers getting 40mpg by now. Instead, they concerned themselves with grill design and how many cup holders they could fit into the suv''s.

They dropped the ball and unfortunately, it''s the white collar and blue collar workers that are getting the pink slips, not the CEO''s who got them in the mess in the first place.

[talkingham]

Why doesn''t Ford sell itself to someone who is interested in making cars people want. Their cars have the most stupid names in the industry too.

The Ford Exploder, the Ford Expunger, the Ford Excrementer, the Ford Exploiter, the Ford Folkass, the list goes on.

[bckrd1]

How stupid could the CEO''s of Ford and GM be? You would have to be an idiot not to see that truck and SUV lines would be having problems selling under the current conditions. Instead of being leaders and making very fuel efficient vehicles they clung to the old ideas. They could have been well placed to be the car of choice. Arrogance. Now they may never catch up.

[bobnjersey]

where''s the leadership for incentivizing the industry and the buying public for investing in more efficient vehicles instead of gas guzzlers ... and for continuing the manufacture of these domestic vehicles within the boundries of the us of a? these failures will domino their way thru the american economy and be felt for years.

[mexinvasion]

The American automobile industry may die out soon and then start over again in a few years. Honda and Toyota are so far ahead that too many consumers will not buy domestic junk. Big waiting list to buy a Toyota Prius. Any waiting list for an American car?? Well no there isn''t.