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View Full Version : Ford Offers Retirement, Buyout To Factory Workers



Rocky C
12-21-09, 03:31 PM
<CITE class=vcard>By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher, Ap Auto Writer </CITE>– <ABBR class=recenttimedate title=2009-12-21T13:15:38-0800>8 mins ago</ABBR>
<ABBR class=recenttimedate title=2009-12-21T13:15:38-0800></ABBR>
<!-- end .byline -->DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. has offered buyout or retirement incentive packages to all of its 41,000 U.S. hourly workers as it tries to further reduce its factory work force.

Ford, the healthiest of Detroit's three automakers and the only one to avoid government aid and bankruptcy protection, still has more workers than it needs to produce cars and trucks at current sales levels, said company spokesman Mark Truby.

He would not say how many workers Ford expects to take the packages, which include cash payments and other incentives such as vouchers to buy cars and short-term health insurance coverage.
"We're just going to try to right-size our manned capacity and align it with demand," Truby said.

Ford currently has 634 blue-collar workers on layoff in the U.S.
Under the terms of a new contract with the United Auto Workers union, the employees get most of their pay for a year depending on seniority, and a portion of their wages for another year before they are removed from the company payroll.

In the past, laid-off workers went into the "jobs bank" and were paid indefinitely even if their factory had been shut down. But the union scrapped the jobs bank earlier this year when all three Detroit automakers ran into financial troubles.

The buyout package, offered to workers with at least a year of service, includes $50,000 cash and the choice of a $25,000 voucher to buy a vehicle or $20,000 more in cash. The deal also includes basic health care coverage for six months, Ford said. Retirement-eligible workers can take the buyout but must wait up to 18 months before retiring.

The retirement package includes $40,000 for skilled trades workers and $20,000 for nonskilled employees. To be eligible, workers have to have either 30 or more years of service, be age 55 or older with 10 or more years of work, or they can be 65 with at least one year of service, the company said.

Earlier this year, only 1,000 workers took similar packages, the company said in July.
Ford started 2009 with 89,000 employees in North America but reduced that number to 80,200 as of Sept. 30 through attrition, buyouts and layoffs.

Truby said the additional offer has nothing to do with the UAW membership rejecting a second round of contract concessions earlier this year. Workers at General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC approved the concessions, so Ford is operating at a small cost disadvantage.

Ford sales were down 19 percent through November when compared with the same time last year. But the company has fared better than the U.S. auto market as a whole, which is down 24 percent for the year. GM and Chrysler sales are both off more than 30 percent.

Late in 2006, Ford had 75,000 unionized workers in the U.S., but it closed factories and reduced its work force with buyout and early retirement offers as part of a massive restructuring plan.

PURPLEROSE
12-21-09, 03:37 PM
Good afternoon Rocky How are you today. hope everyone is well had to jump on for a minute on my way to my second job,

Rocky C
12-21-09, 03:39 PM
Good afternoon Rocky How are you today. hope everyone is well had to jump on for a minute on my way to my second job,

Hi Rose,
It's not at Ford is it???:D

Garyius
12-21-09, 07:46 PM
A thirty year skilled trade would be crazy to take that deal. You get 60k to retire, plus your retirement.

If you take that deal you miss out on a lot. Most skilled trades only work 20 hours a week, 10-15 during regular hours and 5 on overtime. Regular time is about $36 per hour, plus 8 hours OT is about 2k per week. Add in the six weeks per year vaca, and the extra retirement bennies they are adding in, and let the good times roll.

The best thing would be more downsizing, so these guys can move to the job bank and sit around the hall with their friends and play cards all day. Much better than being in that hot plant in the summer. Of course, in the job bank they lose overtime.

Under the regular retirement plan the union submits a workers comp claim as well, for a bad back, which usually adds in at least 60k for the retirement. It simply is not worth retiring now.