Posted on 12/21/2009 12:48:47 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Ford offers buyouts to all UAW workers Photo 3:27pm EST
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said Monday it is offering its 41,000 U.S. factory workers buyouts and early retirement offers in a bid to reduce its payroll costs as it aims to return to profit by 2011.
The buyouts mark the second round of such offers for Ford workers represented by the United Auto Workers union. About 1,000 workers took offers to leave the automaker in July.
Ford workers have until late January to accept the offers, which include payouts of up to $70,000 cash for newer hires to $60,000 cash for veterans already eligible for retirement.
"Despite a strengthening in our business, we still have a surplus in employees," said Ford spokesman Mark Truby.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I had expected GM & Chrysler to do this earlier. If they did do it,I missed it.
Is this a union-busting strategy?
41,000 fewer UAW members !!!! Hope they don’t count as legacies.
I like Ford. I loathe the stinking UAW.
Go Ford! Divest yourself of all UAW members. It will improve your image in the market place and improve your product. Get rid of the union and you won’t be able to build cars fast enough!
Sounds more like a strategy designed to make Ford competitive and profitable over the long term.
Should have been done decades ago.
Hmmm, everywhere you look these days, there is a surplus of employees.
Sadly, and to quote Marxist Obama... and you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
.
Seeing as their owned in large part by the UAW I wouldn't hold my breath for that to happen.
Sounds like it. If Ford can dump UAW, they can leave Detroit for a right-to-work state.
Hope so.
It’s not quite the same as banning UAW members from all Ford-owned property and instituting a policy of hiring non-unionized employees, but it’s a nice start.
I know they’re cutting dental benefits. They cut back the dividend checks to deceased retirees’ spouses to 65%. When mom complains I tell her to thank God that Ford did not take bailout money.
Union-busting?
We can only hope. The only good union is a dead one.
Perhaps Ford wants to go back to being an auto manufacturer instead of a health care & retirement services company.
That would help Ford and American industry in general.
Alright. UAW declared war on Ford, now Ford has countered.
Partly, but that’s not the macro-economic issue here.
There is an abundance of auto production in the world, period. There is far too much auto production capacity in the US, and the world (esp. Japan, Korea and the EU combined) to allow all companies to survive in their current form.
This is why GM got to the point of rolling up Saab. Is there a need for Saab cars out there? Nope. They fulfill no unique product requirement in the market, unlike (eg) Subaru, which has a pretty unique product in a niche market. Saab is just another Euro-weenie car, not unlike a dozen others.
Ford’s management (which is increasingly from outside Detroit) now sees this situation for what it is: a deflationary environment, where the consumer’s buying power will be crushed by declining wages and declining credit availability. Therefore, auto consumption will be constricted for years and years going forward, exacerbating the over-capacity in the US auto market.
The #1 obstacle to the Big Three shedding capacity has been the UAW - who have demanded featherbedding writ large in the form of keeping entire unprofitable product lines/plants in place, bleeding money off the balance sheet. This is what Ford wants to end-run by buying out the UAW, not the usual salary/benefit issues that the UAW imposes on Ford. There’s something else that Ford is probably looking to end-run here too, which is the UAW’s habit of “pattern bargaining” - which means that when the UAW shakes down Uncle Sugar over at Government Motors, the UAW’s precedent is to apply that deal to the other two automakers by previous contract requirement.
Ford is smart to get out from under the UAW. If they can get enough of the UAW to take the buy-out, I might just buy a buttload of F.
If I were them I would take the money and run.
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