Ford to offer buyouts to all UAW workers

kaisen · 09-14-2006, 11:57 AM

At the time of this post, no one is disclosing terms, but Reuters, Automotive News, and the Wall Street Journal are all confirming that Ford and the United Auto Workers union (UAW) are 'planning to offer buyouts to all the company's U.S. workers.'

Earlier, Ford had announced it will give details of the acceleration of its Way Forward restructuring plan at 7 a.m. Friday, Sept. 15, in Detroit.

A presentation and teleconference will follow at 9 a.m. with CEO Alan Mulally, CFO Don Leclair, Americas President Mark Fields and International Operations President Mark Schulz.

A webcast of the presentation will be available at www.ford.com and www.shareholder.ford.com.

E

kaisen · 09-14-2006, 12:10 PM

Ford also just announced that Anne Stevens, the COO of Ford Motor Co.'s Americas unit who helped craft the Way Forward restructuring plan, and Dave Szczupak, group vice president of manufacturing for the Americas, are leaving the automaker.

lendaddy · 09-14-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kaisen
Ford also just announced that Anne Stevens, the COO of Ford Motor Co.'s Americas unit ........

Well there's their problem right there, a woman. She's been running that co. four points down on her I.Q.

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

Freak, what does this mean?

lendaddy · 09-14-2006, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kach22i
Freak, what does this mean?

That the company is trying everything it can to pare down its workforce to something resembling what it actually needs (should this really be difficult?). It is willing to take it in the ass short term to do so, it's a good thing for the company (long term). They have to get rid of people one way or another.

kaisen · 09-14-2006, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lendaddy
That the company is trying everything it can to pare down its workforce to something resembling what it actually needs (should this really be difficult?). It is willing to take it in the ass short term to do so, it's a good thing for the company (long term). They have to get rid of people one way or another.

Previous agreements with the UAW make it VERY difficult. Should it be? Different discussion. But it IS, and it looks like Ford is going to pay through the nose ONCE to save it's butt many times over. If this is true, and if they are successful, it may break the back of the UAW and allow US automakers to be competitive.

lendaddy · 09-14-2006, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kaisen
Previous agreements with the UAW make it VERY difficult. Should it be? Different discussion. But it IS, and it looks like Ford is going to pay through the nose ONCE to save it's butt many times over. If this is true, and if they are successful, it may break the back of the UAW and allow US automakers to be competitive.

Yep, that was my point...that it should not be difficult but it is. A company should never be forced to employ those it does not need....but alas......

kaisen · 09-14-2006, 12:45 PM

Ford to offer sweeping buyout offer: union official
Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:30 PM ET

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. has offered buyouts to more than 75,000 union-represented factory workers in an attempt to cut costs in response to a declining share of the U.S. auto market, the United Auto Workers said in an e-mail to members today.

The buyout packages, which include early retirement incentives, are also being extended to union-represented workers at Automotive Components Holdings, a group of factories formerly held by Visteon Corp., Ford's former parts unit.

In the e-mail, which was provided to Reuters by a union official, UAW Vice President Bob King said the union was "deeply concerned" about Ford's loss of market share.

Ford had taken a more limited, plant-by-plant approach to its attempt to cut 30,000 workers from its payroll by 2012, but expectations had been building over the past month that the No. 2 automaker would follow the successful, company-wide buyout program offered earlier this year by General Motors Corp.

Details of the Ford plan were being readied for distribution to UAW-represented workers at Ford, the official said.

Craig 930 RS · 09-14-2006, 12:49 PM

Adios Unionamos?

kaisen · 09-14-2006, 01:39 PM

75,000 Ford UAW members were offered $140,000 each.

john70t · 09-14-2006, 02:20 PM

How far will that really go as a pension? Still better than the food line, I suppose.

jkarolyi · 09-14-2006, 04:27 PM

>75,000 Ford UAW members were offered $140,000 each.

Sheesh, what a chunk of change! That's ten and a half BILLION dollars!

Unions will kill the American auto industry just like they did the textile and steel industry. This cash outlay from a company that can't afford it is required because union idiots don't understand that a business can't pay for workers they don't need. Too bad no union workers ever took an economics class.

dd74 · 09-14-2006, 04:31 PM

I like it. A good decision.

930addict · 930addict's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by kaisen
75,000 Ford UAW members were offered $140,000 each.

Holy crap! That's a lot of money. What a fricken rip-off. If this were my company I would fire them all and move their jobs to Mexico and Canada. Where would the unions be then?

lendaddy · 09-14-2006, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 930addict
If this were my company I would fire them all and move their jobs to Mexico and Canada.

Ahh, there's the rub. You can't.

DaveE · 09-14-2006, 04:55 PM

Funny, I worked at a GM Assy plant once and got laid off, along with several hundred others. It didn't seem to be too difficult for GM to do at the time.

lendaddy · 09-14-2006, 04:59 PM

When and what plant? Was this decades ago?

DaveE · 09-14-2006, 05:02 PM

Yeah, I confess. Mid-70s. Wilmington, DE. The plant switched from Caprice / LaSabre to Chevette, went from 2200 per shift to ~1800.

kach22i · kach22i's Garage

I worked in a Steel Mill in 1979, terrible working conditions, you earn your pay and risk your life. No purple hearts given either.

I was watching one of the "Made in America" programs hosted by the guy that used to be on Cheers. The one plant left in America was 95% automated with about 1/10th of the work force it had 30 years ago.

Tennis balls, that was it tennis balls.

DaveE · 09-15-2006, 06:51 AM

My assembly line experience was like this. It was in the '70s and I'm sure alot of the anti-union gripers on the board weren't even born yet but I don't think things have changed too much, maybe a little more automation. Anyway, at the Wilmington plant at the time we produced a car a minute. One job I had for a short time was hanging left front doors. every minute I would lift a bare door from a moving conveyor that it hung from and place it on a jig that another guy had placed in the opening on the car and a third guy would tighten the hinge bolts. We did this once a minute for eight hours. Not exactly rocket science for sure. In 1974 this was paying me around $6.40 per hour. It was decent for an unskilled worker but I wasn't getting rich and didn't feel like I was bankrupting GM. The line doesn't stop and you don't walk away from it. The doors have to go on the freakin' car after all.

Another station I worked at required me to simply bolt on the front door hinges loosely on one side. A car a minute, 8 hours per day. It's alot of walking but no thought really. It's the kind of stuff these guys do. You develop a vivid imagination on these jobs. It gets you through the day. I don't know that things have changed a whole lot over the years.