Ford Cutting Up to 30,000 Jobs, Shutting Down 14 Plants

[WestHoustonDem]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-012306ford_wr,0,236674.story?coll=la-home-headlines

DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, said today that it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and idle 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring designed to reverse a $1.6 billion loss last year in its North American operations.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker has been hurt by falling sales of its profitable sport utility vehicles, growing health care and materials costs and labor contracts that have limited its ability to close plants and cut jobs. The United Auto Workers union will have to agree to some of the changes Ford wants to make.

[uppityperson]

1. N America plants lose money, overall up $2 billion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2059745

[NashVegas]

2. Update: Ford Slashing Up to 30,000 Jobs by 2012

Ford Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, said Monday that it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and idle 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring designed to reverse a $1.6 billion loss last year in its North American operations

...

Ford shares rose 68 cents, or 8.6 percent, to $8.58 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060123/ford_restructuring.html?.v=15

[MercutioATC]

3. Makes sense.

Reducing employees is viewed as cost-cutting. The stock market likes cost-cutting.


The stock market has nothing to do with employee retention. It's a measure of how the COMPANY is doing (among other factors), not how the EMPLOYEES are doing.

[Hyernel]

4. Ford is going to an all executive/robot staff.

:)

Pretty sure that outsourcing to China will happen too.

[BraveDave]

5. Pat yourself on the back...

..if you have bought a hyundai, kia, etc. over an American vehicle in the last 5 years or so.

[Ganja Ninja]

6. And how long has it been since Ford bought Volvo ...

and Jaguar? It's OK for corporations to spend money abroad but not the the rest of us. Is that what your saying?

[hatrack]

7. And if Ford had made a hybrid back in 2001, I would have

They didn't make one, so I didn't buy one.

[NoEvilTony]

8. For not buying a Ford?

Huh? Are you suggesting that those of us who own "foreign" cars are to blame for this?

Both my Accord and my wife's Element were made in the United States.

Ford has had YEARS to catch up with the likes of Honda. I have owned an Explorer and a Mustang and can say from experience that Quality is NOT job one. Now I own Honda's.

Crazy, man, crazy.

[Thor_MN]

50. Your car may have been made in America, but the profits from them are

now offshore...

[hogwyld]

25. I hope all the people who bought foreign cars are happy...

When people stop and think about their purchasing choices, I hope they remember that when you support union/American workers, they will in the end support YOUR jobs as well. But instead of spending the extra 50 cents a day, they give their money to overseas corportation. You can justify your delusions by saying they're made in America, but the profit all goes back to Korea, Japan, etc. In the end, you will reap what you have sown.

[hughee99]

26. I have an american car, but not a Ford

How is someone who owns a KIA (for example) more responsible for Ford laying off workers than I am? Neither one of us are buying Ford products.

Updated for grammar

[Dave Reynolds]

28. I've heard that "where the profit goes" crap before,

and beyond parroting that, what does it mean?

Where does the profit go with American car companies?

I, personally, do not give a shit whether shareholders or CEOs make their money. I care about the workers. So yes, we can indeed justify our "delusions" about where the cars are made, and where the workers are spending their paychecks.

Do you think no one in this country has stock in Kia, Honda, etc.?

[Igel]

46. Pension funds are big stockholders.

So are many retirees. And insurance companies. And banks, with deposits that aren't returned as loans.

Their income goes down, pensions have troubles, retirees have troubles, insurance rates go up, and other businesses, also with shareholders, have troubles.

No matter. None of these things could ever affect workers.

[NickB79]

36. I bought a Toyota

It was assembled here in the US and employed thousands of US workers. I do NOT feel guilty.

My previous car WAS a Ford, a 1998 Ford Taurus to be precise. I bought that car 2.5 yrs ago, and almost immediately had to sink money into it for repairs. I've spent more money fixing that lemon than I originally paid for it!!! Brake problems, transmission problems, rusting, you name it, it's had a problem.

How about this. If they brought back the Pinto, exploding gas tank and all, and told you to buy it because it was made by an American company and employs American workers, would you? Or how about a car that simply gets horrific fuel economy and falls apart after 5 years? Would you buy it knowing it will only last half as long as a foreign car?

If we reward American automakers for pumping out shit, they will continue to pump out shit. Only by demanding better products through use of our buying power will they ever build a better vehicle.

[BraveDave]

39. Please...

You bought a 4-5 year old USED car and you're calling it a lemon?

My 10 year old Ford has never been in the shop.

[tabasco]

41. You're lucky.

I just rid myself of a Ranger that fell apart after 75,000 miles. The first week I owned it broke down. The dealer treated me like shit and didn't even provide a loaner. I had to call a cab to go to get a rental.

I bought a 5-year old Toyota that gets close to 50 mpg. I took it in for regular service and the dealer gladly provided me with a loaner car.

Don't blame consumers for the failure of the US car companies.

It is their reponsibility to put out a reliable and efficient product, and treat customers right. They have failed miserably due to greed and short-sightedness.

It's funny how those who claim free markets rule and hail business efficiency are the first to condemn consumers, who refuse to buy junk.

[NickB79]

44. You should buy a lottery ticket with that luck

Yes, I'm calling that car a lemon. My mom and her boyfriend bought the car for me since my old car had just died and they both owed me money. So, they spent $3000 on the Taurus and gave it to me. If I would have known what they were up to I would have begged them to find me a used Civic or Corolla. Later I find out the engine in the Taurus was not the original. The previous engine had died at only 60,000 miles out of the factory. It was replaced with a new engine, the owner put 60,000 miles on that one, then sold it. I put another 10,000 miles on the engine and began experiencing engine trouble.

So yes, a vehicle that needs a new engine every 60,000-70,000 miles is most definitely a lemon in my book.

[BraveDave]

51. It's

really a good idea to open that glove compartment thingy and read what we call an OWNER'S MANUAL.

I've yet to meet a NEW VEHICLE BUYER, who followed the MAINTENANCE SCHEDUAL, experience a problem, that wasn't quickly solved by a dealer's warranty liason.

You get what you pay for at those "Dependable Used RENTAL Car Dealers."

Basically, you (oh, I'm sorry) Someone else bought you a used vehicle that you have no clue as to whose 17 year old might have driven 50k+ miles without changing the oil, BUT it HAS to be the manufacturer and the union's fault because it broke, am I rite?

[LeftHander]

40. Thanks FORD for beating the DEAD SUV

until it beat the company into the ground.

Shortsighted quarterly profit mentality.

But the blame on poor management where it belongs...on management.

You dont put all your investments into one platform. Ford had the choice ten years ago to keep developing the SUV and converting all avaialble manfacturing space to SUVs or to look twenty years into the future. A just GUESS what oil prices were going to be...

Had anyone thought of something beside the big fat profits from SUV's in the 90's they would of been able to of seen that fuel efficiency was going to be the big market driver going into the first half of the 21st century.

So now they have forced layoffs and retooling...they did it in the 70's. Will they survive this time?

I think so. I'm not going to underestimate the power of corporations to raise money, get tax cuts to develop new products. Lots of American's will suffer because of Ford's poor management in the meantime.

[Fovea]

49. My next to last car was a Bronco

which dropped its transmission out of warranty.

The one after that was a Jimmy, which was a piece of absolute crap. But these were not lemons because of the workmanship, they sucked from the drafting board on down the line.

My sweetie, learning from my misery drives a Kia. I now ride a bicycle, but it is made in the US. It also has a lifetime warranty on the frame.

Right now if someone says to me, buy American? I tell them Burley makes the best machine on the road.

But the American automakers are in trouble because from the line worker to the CEO, Americans worship ignorance and hate intelligent things.

Don't believe me, watch some network T.V. or listen to Rush Limbaugh.

[ckramer]

9. Ford to drop 1,700 suppliers, keep 800

Ford Motor Co intends to cut the number of its suppliers around the world to around 800 over the next few years from about 2,500 now, industry paper Automotive News reported on Monday.

That would be a bigger drop than originally planned by Ford, which has said in the past it would reduce the number of suppliers by around half in a bid to get better technology at lower cost.

Ford buys about $70 billion of parts annually, the paper said.

link

So these rest of the 900 suppliers all of the sudden lost the source of their paycheck!

[DS1]

10. That seems sensible

the amount of overhead tracking. paying, invoicing, complaining to, etc, that many suppliers is just a waste.

Yeah, some suppliers will lose business, other suppliers will gain business.

[jimshoes]

11. Ouch

I know what it's like to lose a bread and butter customer. It makes things very tough to make up the shortfall in revenues. This is going to ripple outward like shockwaves from the epicenter of an earthquake.

[tatertop]

13. This will kill some small towns

[kiraboo]

12. I'm temping at one of the suppliers being kept.

I'm temping, because although they want to hire me, they're tightening their belt to the point of strangulation. Other suppliers are going belly-up every day. I gave notice here on Friday and asked what was the prevailing long view as far as this plant staying open. The people here are optimistic, but they err. The Ford layoff announcement has taken them by surprise, and they don't believe our situation with Iran will have any ultimate impact on the business. It amazes me.

[PassingFair]

20. How do we know which suppliers

...are getting the ax?

[Imagevision]

33. How many more lose jobs due to Ford layoff? suppliers etc...

30,000 is Ford when that number can easily be matched by Ford vendors

[doubleplusgood]

14. yes, the economy is (ka)booming ! n/t

[juliana24]

18. Working at Ford for 30 Bucks/Hr vs. Walmarts for 8 bucks per hour...

Yeap the ecomomy is really booming!! NOT !!!

[BraveDave]

35. Don't exaggerate...

I only make $24 an hour.

Apparently, the folks around here only back the UAW when they need votes.

[tabasco]

42. So vote republican then.

If you don't like Democrats who refuse to buy junk, then vote republican if that is your big issue. It is their type of short-sightedness that has destroyed Ford. Refusal to implement efficiency standards is a big reason the company is going down. The Democrats were trying to help Ford and other US car companies with efficiency standards, but the republicans and the car companies would hear nothing of it!

So vote republican if you are so pissed at Democrats for refusing to buy the junk that Detroit churns out.

[juliana24]

45. Lots of Walmart workers make less then 8 dollars per hour...

but I do apologise if my estimate of UAW wages offended you.

[pinniped]

15. Nice of them to mention high fuel costs were a factor in the decline...

in SUV sales. Wait a minute, they forgot to mention it. I must have picked that info up from another source.

High fuel costs can be attributed to who and what again?

Scotty-moran, always hard at work with that 360 degree spinning head.

--Reacting to news of the job cuts, White House putz secretary Scat McClusterfuck said: "Anytime someone loses a job we're concerned about it, we're concerned about the community."

However, McClusterfuck said overall the economy "is going strong."--

[juliana24]

16. The UAW and Teamsters Unions are fading fast.............

[rfkrfk]

17. where is the UAW ?

I have no sympathy for people who don't stand up for themselves.

where are the wildcat strikes?
when is the general strike?

on the other hand, these workers can look forward to
an enjoyable career in the fast food industry

[juliana24]

19. UAW: Out to lunch. The Teamsters union is right behind them

When there are no more unions, the wages, bennies, protection from managment, everything will be history for good.

[Blue_Tires]

30. i'm with you,

but what can they honestly do?? the economy is such that no one dare think of striking, and no matter what they tried, ford and gm have had the plans in place to move operations over to china for awhile now....the UAW is getting marginalized on all sides

[gunsaximbo]

31. What? Freepers? ! You have forgotten your history dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ronald Reagan - starting with the Air Traffic Controllers strike made it illegal to wildcat. He also made it legal for the employer to hire scabs to replace the striking employee. In the past it was illegal for scabs to cross the picket line.

DO NOT MOTHER F_C_ the UAW. Their hands are tied - legally. Thanks to the right f_cking wing who is DESTROYING this country. They are ripping the heart out of the United States. If they strike they lose their job to someone else. If they don't strike they wimps. I'd like to see what you would do in the same situation.

I PLEDGE that If I do anything before I die it will to help make the unions stronger because they have made life better for all of us. Your Father or Grand Father was probably a union man and he fought -
b]literally fought for his job, his wage. his medical coverage and a five day work week. The next time you see a Union man - say thank you.

I PRAY that these people will find new jobs that pay the same as what the have today.

I pray that the Democrats get our country back and the Unions gain strength again because my kids and your kids will be looking for jobs in a few years and what we we tell them when they can't find one, or the only job is at Walmart paying minimum wage - not enough to buy the junk they sell.

Joe Serra
Democratic Candidate for the Illinois General assembly
<http://www.serra06.com>

[Heewack]

37. What is the UAW supposed to do?

A strike? What the hell does that accomplish?

[Blue_Forney05]

21. Don't worry

Walmart is hiring. Soon though with this outsourcing and layoffs, even places like Walmart will have problems because no one will have any money to buy their "junk".

[u4ic]

22. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Blue_Forney05]

23. Thanks u4ic

[umass1993]

24. Good riddance.

It's time to build a new paradigm. A sustainable paradigm, that is completely opposite the desolate landscape one typically sees in a car commercial (I guess that's the auto lovers dream world).

Good riddance. The sweat of the American people deserve something better than building parking lots a Ford F150s.

The Wal-mart phenom is transitory. At some point, people will have to do real work in this country, and if it isn't building cars, then I am perfectly at peace with that.

[susanna]

32. Funny you should mention that...

Bill Ford and Ford Motor had other press outside of the job cuts today. Ford is looking to aggressively introduce new hybrids based on their standard vehicles, finding methods for sustainable and flexible manufacturing, and even making cars more end-of-life recyclable than they are today. In fact, the company is looking specifically towards creating the new paradigm you mention. Of course that isn't as sexy as the drastic job cuts, so the media ignored all that "fluffy" stuff.

For those not aware, Bill Ford was behind the renovation of the Rouge Plant, a landmark assembly complex in Southeast Michigan. Click the link for the environmentally innovative ideas put into place during its overhaul from 2000 - 2005 (look for the "Factory of the Future" header):

http://www.ford.com/en/goodWorks/environment/cleanerManufacturing/rougeRenovation.htm

I work within the auto industry and have for about 20 years. I'm willing to give Ford the benefit of the doubt and hope they succeed, and want to help spread the word about the very good things they are trying to do in regards to sustainable manufacturing.

on edit: spelling (sorry)

[umass1993]

34. Not Impressed..Sorry

The personal motor vehicle and environmentalism are in direct odds with eachother.

Hybrids will not cut down on total emissions. All the oil that can be produced will be produced and burned, whether its by 200 million SUV's or 1 billion hybrids.

The fact of the matter is, the personal automobile leaves a large environmental footprint. Manufacture, distribution and usage. You can't have a billion chinese with 900 million cars and still have the giant panda. That is just reality.

It's time we grew up and faced the truth. The corporations cannot be trusted at all to tell us the truth. Nor should we expect the to do so, they are not in the truth business.

"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous." -Hobbes

[susanna]

48. Because they aren't going away anytime soon?

Listen - I know what you're saying. I agree. That said, I also know that vehicles, in one form or another, are here and are not leaving.

If you are not impressed, that is not my problem. I did not say I was impressed; simply that I am giving them the benefit of the doubt for the moment, considering the direction they are trying to take. YMMV, obviously.

[Deja Q]

27. Something I recall reading about cutting jobs now means

more stable jobs in the future.

:eyes:

Usually when CEOs can't bring in a profit, THEY get replaced too for not being smart enough to bring in the dough.

[llmart]

29. They may get replaced......

but they leave with a multimillion dollar golden parachute even when they've f***ed up the company and they usually go on to another company because the good ole' boy network - they watch out for each other.

Don't cry too many tears for the execs and don't blame this on the workers and their wages and bennies. Why is it the workers are expected to work for peanuts while the execs live the good life?

I live in the suburbs of Detroit and those of you who aren't aware of it, Oakland County is one of the richest counties per capita in the nation and it's not because of the line workers or draftsmen.

[pitohui]

38. ford is the ceo and he ain't gonna replace himself

anyway as ceo's go he is one of the best, frankly

now you may take that as a sad commentary on the quality of ceo's but i just don't think you will do better elsewhere or get anyone more concerned to protect the reputation and the future of the business

after 9-11 and the horrible performance of the stock he refused to take a salary, not too many other ceo's willing to follow that example

[apple_ridge]

43. I loved the quote from Bill Ford,

"We must reduce capacity in North America," chairman and chief executive Bill Ford said. "From now on our products will be designed and built to satisfy customers, not just fill a factory."

He's trying to lay the blame on the union rather than wear it actually lies, on the management.

Gee, those darned Japanese have been building cars for the customer! How can you compete with that business model?

[dmallind]

47. Actually that is true

It's difficult to make a car that competes at the same approxiamte price point as a competitor's car when you spend over twice as much on labor costs as they do.

If you have to sell a car for $15000 and it costs you (the factory) approximately $9000 to build, $3600 of which is labor costs, when your competitor sells for $15000 at a cost of $9000 but only $1500 in labor costs, where do you take the $2100 lkabor cost difference out? Well it's almost always the quality and attractiveness of the components.

So yoiu get customer experiences as shown above - a Big 3 car which is less reliable and of palpably inferior components compared to the more efficient competition. Guess which one gains more sales?

Do I blame unions? About as much as management - those bloated costs and inefficient practices come from contracts signed by both, so both share the blame.