Ford Still Wants To Retire 4200 Workers

In the midst of multibillion losses and a historic restructuring of its domestic product line, the Ford Motor Company has made it known that they still need to let 4200 workers go according to a report in yesterday’s The Detroit News.

Meeting with union officials earlier this week, Ford says that additional blue collar workers will need to be let go, though they haven’t said exactly by when this must happen. Over the past three years, Ford has trimmed its workforce by 40%; General Motors and Chrysler have also implemented similar labor reductions.

9000 Wanted, Less Than Half That Found

Earlier this year Ford announced a new round of retirement packages to encourage workers to leave, looking for 9000 employees to take up their offer, but having fewer than half that number of people interested in the offer. Though the package is quite generous, many workers are concerned that the present economic climate would make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to find work elsewhere. Hence, the resistance by some to retire now.

To help workers make the transition from Ford to other careers, the company has hosted several job fairs to convince workers to take buyouts and recently created a Web site, www.yourjobconnection.org, in a bid to help workers move on.

Factories Closed, Production Cut, New Cars Planned

Earlier this summer Ford announced that the company would cut SUV and truck production to be more in line with customer demand. With that change, the company closed some factories while converting others to begin producing smaller cars. Ford also announced that the company would bring as many as six small European models to the North American market, building these cars on assembly lines in factories in Mexico, Canada, and the US.

Through August 2008, Ford’s U.S. sales were down by more than 15%, though its smallest car, the Ford Focus, is on track to see year over year increases of more than 25%.