Ford To Cut Shifts, Lay Off Some 2,500 Workers

[Purveyor]

March 3 2008 DETROIT, March 3 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co on Monday said it was eliminating shifts at two assembly plants and two engine plants and laying off some 2,500 workers as part of its effort to cut costs and return to profitability.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker said it would run its Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, assembly plants on one shift rather than the current two shifts starting at some point this summer.

In addition, Ford said it would cut a shift at its Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 in April. Plans to restart production at Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 have been pushed back to the fourth quarter from the spring, Ford said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7354056

[Hydra]

1. Where are all those jobs you're creating, Bushco? n/t

[reformedrethug]

2. Thats why I am glad

as hell my wife works for Honda. They just announced that they are closing the bike plant and moving production back to japan for the bikes. Apparently due to the exchange rate its getting too expensive to ship the bikes back to Japan so they built a new plant there and will be building the bikes there, but, instead of laying off all of the Honda associates they are simply moving them to other plants in the area like the car plant. Honda has NEVER laid anybody off.

[Rosemary2205]

3. Honda (and Toyota) has a HUGE advantage.

Their costs for their primary workforce are MUCH lower than for Ford and GM. 2 reasons, medical care and retirement benefits. They pay their American workforce about 3/4 of what Ford/GM do -- but most Honda/Toyota plants are out in the boonies where the cost of living there is much lower. Most Ford/GM plants are in much more urban areas, the cost of living is much higher and workers would need higher pay to meet a comparable lifestyle as American Honda workers would.

Add to this the huge tax advantages of having relatively new plants, still under Tax abatement packages, then you have a recipe for great advantage to "non American" car makers.

[reformedrethug]

5. I dont know where you get your information

from but it is not accurate at all. The main Honda plant in Ohio is not out in the boonies as you put it. The city of Marysville has approx 17,500 residents, is only 25 miles from the state capital and is growing like a weed. Lets address the medical first, they have a pretty damn good health insurance plan that covers medical, dental, and vision. The medical plan itself is pretty good, you have a $3,000.00 per year fund to draw from for medical costs, of course preventative health care does not come out of there, ie: yearly physicals, mammograms, prostrate screenings, etc... basically anything that is preventative care does not come out of that fund. While your using that fund you have zero deductible for anything. Once you use up that fund the next 650 is out of pocket, then once that is reached the company picks up a 90/10 split up to a total out of pocket for 2750.00 per year. Once you hit that it goes back to 100% company paid. Dental is about average for plans same as with the vision.

Now lets address the pay, Line workers get 25 an hour, free uniforms, monthly attendance bonus, yearly attendance bonus, yearly profit sharing which has been in the 4k a year range for a while. Now for retirement you get a 401k, stock purchase plan, plus a monthly retirement check, also, once you start getting SS, they pay a supplemental amount until your eligible for the full amount. All I will say about my wife's income is it was over 50k by at least half again, and she is just a first level supervisor or "team leader".

Do you know how long Honda has had plants in Ohio? The bike plant started production in 1979, and has built successive plants since then including the main Car plant in Marysville, then there is the Anna Engine Plant, West Liberty Auto Plant, Indian Lake transmission plant, and Honda R&D.

The reason Honda has done so well is they make a quality product that retains its resale value and will run forever with proper maintenance. 300K+ vehicles are not unusual but more likely the norm when people do simple things like oil changes and other scheduled maintenance. My wife drove a 93 accord with 325K on it until last march when a deer ran out in front of her and she ended up totaling her car. Otherwise she would be driving it today more than likely because she never had anything major go wrong with it.

[NickB79]

6. Damn, I'm in the Teamsters union, and we only get $20.82/hour

The rest of the benefits you listed sound pretty competitive with what we're getting as well.

Welcome to DU!

[reformedrethug]

7. Thanks

like I said, Honda is a damn good place to work which is why it sooooo hard to get into, and they do take care of their associates. My wife has been there going on 22 years and yea there are some bad things but every job has that. Overall tho she likes her job, she is a supervisor in charge of about 10 people so she has her hands full LOL.

One thing Honda has done for their associates is every year they have what they call the Family Festival. They rent out the convention center, nationwide arena, and the arena grand theater for the day and the associates and their families have full run of the place. They have activities for the kids, booths to go to, concerts, free movies, carnival rides, etc... The concerts are awesome, so far since I have been married to my wife we have seen Styx, REO Speedwagon, Kiss, Def Leopard, Peter Frampton, Bon Jovi, Brooks and Dunn, Trace Adkins, Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engval, and others I cant remember LOL. This year for a change of pace its Cedar Point

[Rosemary2205]

8. You misunderstood

the core of Honda's workers are NOT in the US. This gives them an incredible financial advantage. Ford and GM are struggling to move more of it's operations to places with medical care and retirement benefits that are spread throughout the community rather than employer based. -- Yes, Ford and GM have had more trouble keeping up with costs in the face of sagging sales. And yes, Honda's Ohio plants have been there quite awhile, but MOST of the plants belonging to foreign car makers are new enough to still enjoy tax abatement benefits. But the basic fact is, in order to compete at the same price point that foreign car makers do, Ford and GM are forced to produce a vehicle that cuts costs in ways other than labor -- meaning quality. In fact, the auto magazines have made it clear, that as Toyota and Honda stay here longer, and begin to lose some of their competitive advantages, their quality is coming more in line with Ford and GM. The difference is that Toyota and Honda in particular were able to build a reputation for superior cars while they still had the financial advantages to put higher quality into the car than Ford or GM could afford to do. Toyota and Honda still have a slight advantage - but if you look at their financial statements you'll see their profit margin on North American built and sold vehicles has been dropping.

[blues90]

4. Two years ago , when I still worked for a frod dealership

One of the detroit ford reps came in and he had a meeting with all of the employees .

He started out with the history of Henry Ford and then told us that Ford was moving more into marketing . He said ford knows there are many other manufacturers building cars and trucks every bit as good as ford and thanked us for whatever it is that we did for ford .

It was a kiss of death , that was my read on his bs rap .

Four years before this , ford was offering buyout packages for direct ford employees , these are people who work in all areas directly for ford motor co .

Things really began to fall apart at least 6 years ago .

The big three don't care about people , they don't care about anything .