Ford Offers Buyouts to All Factory Workers

Ford Motor Co. says it is offering buyout and early retirement incentives to all of its 41,000 U.S. hourly workers to further reduce its factory work force.

Company spokesman Mark Truby said Ford still has too many factory workers for its current sales levels.

He would not say how many workers the company wants to leave but said Ford is working that out with the United Auto Workers union. Ford currently has about 600 blue-collar workers laid off but available for recall.

The buyout offer includes $50,000 cash plus a $25,000 car voucher or $20,000 more in cash. The retirement package includes $40,000 cash for skilled trades and $20,000 for production workers.

[eus109937]

The employees better take this buyout or retirement packages because that is a good amount of cash. If they stay they will be laid off and just have unemployment and that's it. Everytime these auto companies extend buyouts they usually follow them up within a year with a mass layoff of anyone that did not take them, so my advice would be to take the buyout now!

[ajapierce]

The major problem in the country is that we are sending everything overseas, and local governments also kill it.

Look at it this way, the high-wages companies complain about paying mostly go to paying your property taxes. What do you property taxes pay? Well let's see: Local town officials making $160,000+ a year driving 1 or 2 mercedes-benz's, board of education employees making $240,000+ a year (don't even want to say what they drive). Who else? Let's see, Polica, Fireman, Department of Public Works.

NJ, my home state, is a perfect example of wasted money. Most of all towns in NJ have their own indivudial school system, including a Board of Education. Most other states have a Board of Education by county. NJ, well has more then 800+ board of educations for each school in each town. Why is this bad? Legendary NJ Property Taxes consist of:

25% Board of Education, 20% for Town Executives who do nothing, 15% County Taxes, 15% for School Students / Teachers and Schools, 15% for other town employees, Fire, Police, DPW, etc... 10% for road town improvments, re-paving roads, leaf cleanup, etc.. etc.. etc..

You can see that about 45% of property taxes just go to waste, especially in NJ. Could you imagine if NJ, the state with about revenue of about $580 billion a year, cutting property taxes down by about 25% would make a boat load of money availible for the rest of the Unitied States economy?

$145 Billion sounds like chump change compared to monies congress is spending now, but that would be a lot of products for the average day person could be buying, possiblity encouring more jobs in this country.

[askagain]

It is not just unions that drove up the price of labor. The government, insurance companies, and environmental rules and laws also contribute. Companies must meet all types of mandates, some of them are related to safety and the environment. Many foreign countries have lax labor laws, lax environmental laws, and lax safety rules. China, for example, has allowed pollution from factories for years. Although most of us are concerned about the environment, we need to realize that government requirements make producing things in America more expensive.

[50BMS13]

askagain
yes very true....however the most important cost as to whether companies can make a go of it come down to simply labor. The largest % of a cars cost of build is labor cost.

[50BMS13]

mgunn89512
I was involved in a good paying union job before...the buy-outs came and stores closed. What needs to happen is a buy-out for all workers pro-rated for seniority and length of service. Then a 50% reduction in wages from that point on for new hires. Ones that did not accept the buyout could be entitled to a 25% wage decrease instead. The new contract could be written up for indepent Certified Management Accountants to arbitrate fair pay in ratio to company profitability. Ford stock would go through the roof if this happened....profitability would be way up....job security would be enhanced,...a younger work force...ALL PLUSES! Greed on both sides, the employees and companies has to be rooted out. Just a few ideas...thanks for asking!

[Sky017]

Not sure about this. Apart from tradition and myth, in this modern world, are the older workers worth that much more than the newer ones who have better education with newer technologies?

From a BUSINESS perspective which do business people expect to have more problems with health affecting work and productivity?

Aside: This is also why Generation Y is uptight and antsy. The Baby Boomers have taken care of themselves, and it's perceived they give the Gen Y's the dregs. Young people today are being told, "There is no loyalty in business." And in high tech many jobs say flat out, 'no overtime' yet people are working 60+ hours per week.

Research the plane that crashed in Buffalo this year in winter conditions. Why are young pilots paid so poorly and having to work two jobs? It's not right and it's not fair.

[50BMS13]

Sky017
You are correct...pilots need to be well paid. Pilots are not manual labor (light skilled). Takes intensive training. Same with doctors etc. High skilled intensive trained jobs where years of University and training/upgrading must be well paid.

[girlmiami]

sad,where are the american jobs Mr President

[sjc_1]

The auto industry has been downsizing for decades. The new jobs will be in renewable energies and biofuels, it will become the next great growth area after computers. President Obama knows this, that is why ARRA and DOE money are going into these programs.

[Overruled1]

The american jobs were 'outsourced'.
The banks got bailed out and now they refuse to loan, they have profits again and are paying off the fed for the loans, but....my home is worth 5/8 what it was last July, 6,000,000 jobs have been lost and that means more affected, we have cities now in the soupkitchen and still send some $45-60 million daily in foreign aid, 1/3 of it to Israel,our national debt is owned by a foreign nation committed to destroy our way of life, our military is not commited to defense, but offense, and we have 20 million undocumented people.
I have to say the last decade has been a disaster.....Y2K did indeed leave its mark...

[CarlosdelGato]

This just in: All 41,000 Ford employees accepted their company's offer and now Ford can't build a single vehicle.

Their plan worked.

[50BMS13]

The average salary at Ford is $85,000. You can see why cars are made elsewhere....

[50BMS13]

incog-nito
No.....The wage simply is too high for manual labor. No College or University degree. Just lucky enough to get signed on the UAW. Maybe a healthy $40,000-$50,000 wage....hire more workers more jobs better product. Unions have gotten greedy and have destroyed a good thing. One commenter on this board also noted that which I haven't that there are benefits as well paid that puts the average salary with benefits closer to $100,000. I can guarantee you this....that in the 1940s and 1950s the average wage in todays dollars would not be $100K. They were just real good jobs, and we could still have that....but someone got greedy.