Ford set to cut 10,000 jobs

[Rose Siding]

Ford Motor Company is set to cut over 10,000 jobs worldwide, mostly in the US, after persuading labour unions to agree to the closure or sale of four assembly and component plants.

The moves come as the Detroit "big three" carmakers are receiving ratification from labour unions of new three-year labour contacts, which include plant closures and jobs losses.

Chrysler, the US unit of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, is also preparing cuts in salaried staff, the latest round of job losses at the troubled subsidiary where 30,000 workers have left in the past two years under an $8.1bn restructuring plan.

Under a $9bn restructuring unveiled in January last year, Ford said it wanted to close five plants in North America.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480243280

[NNN0LHI]

1. GM and Chrysler will be doing the same thing soon

Less than 10,000 for Chrysler, but more than 10,000 for GM.

Don

[karlschneider]

2. Impossible! Chimpy's tax cuts are creating jobs! I heard him say so!

:eyes:

[saigon68]

13. That $400.00 my son got for my Grandson is buying a new car--

No they used it to buy food and stock up on canned goods for a long cold winter.

[expatriot]

3. if there is a silver lining it is that the rust belt will surely go DEM

in 04, even Ohio.

[Rose Siding]

6. This is no jobless recovery

It's a job eating recovery

[Kellanved]

4. German media says Daimler may cut up to 17700 jobs in the US

Due to a settlement with the union.

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,267852,00.html

[NNN0LHI]

5. I didn't think they had 17700 jobs left to cut. I was wrong n/t

[UpInArms]

7. Ford may cut up to 12,000 jobs (CNN)

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/30/news/companies/ford_cuts.reut/?cnn=yes

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. will cut as many as 12,000 jobs worldwide while DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler arm is also getting set to cut thousands of jobs, a report said late Tuesday.

Fresh off the negotiating table, new labor agreements with the United Auto Workers will allow Detroit's Big Three automakers to eliminate as many as 50,000 jobs through a combination of buyouts and normal attrition over the next few years, industry analysts have said.

<snip>

Earlier Tuesday, Ford (F: Research, Estimates), the nation's second-largest automaker, told employees it plans to cut 3,000 salaried jobs by releasing 1,700 contract workers and eliminating 1,300 vacant jobs in a bid to slash costs by the end of the year.

...more...

10,000 or 12,000 or 17,000

those layoffs spread through the economy and effect 10s of people for each person that is laid off :(

[ozone_man]

8. I guess all the 0% down and 0% financing is exhausted.

One of the last things holding up the auto industry and the economy. People only have so much money, and the house refinancing money is now exhausted. The next to go will be the real estate bubble.

I think that it's pretty safe to say that the economy will be in free fall soon and Bush will soon be out of office.

[gmoney]

9. My Honda is more American than most Big 3 cars

Thanks to Honda exploiting cheap labor here in my home state, my Accord was assembled here. Maybe the profit went overseas, but at least the workers were paid a living wage in American money.

[kysrsoze]

12. I completely agree. "American cars" normally have about 50% foreign parts

'Buy American' means nothing when you're talking about cars. Funny how the 'imports' can make a better car in the U.S. than the 'American' car companies. It's mainly due to the quality of the design, rather than construction quality.

[evworldeditor]

10. Sign of the Times at Ford

I just returned from covering the 2003 Michelin Challenge Bibedum, a competition organized to show the progress being made in cleaning up our cars and trucks.

Besides having a chance to drive a couple modern diesels from Europe including the superb Mercedes E320cdi and a PT Cruiser with a diesel engine in it, I learned something interesting about what's happening at Ford.

Over a year ago Ford was working on an innovative hydraulic hybrid that used compressed hydraulic fluid instead of electricity and batteries to capture regenerative braking energy. They had installed the unit in a big, honking Navigator or Excursion -- I don't recall which, but I do have video of it somewhere in my files. I also drove it and came away very impressed. Ford engineers told me the unit improved the SUV's fuel economy by something like 40% while reducing emissions, etc. It also had stunning acceleration.

So what happen to that promising project?

As I walked through the "Education Center" at Infineon Raceway outside Sonoma, I discovered the answer. Cash-strapped Ford had shelved the program. But that's not the end of the story.

Turns out Eaton Corporation -- which is building the hybrid drives for FedEx's new "green" fleet of delivery vans -- is continuing the research on the system, which would be really useful in heavy vehicles that do a lot of stop and go urban driving like refuge trucks. There next to a full-scale mockup of Eaton's hybrid-drive transmission was a tiny model of the HLA (hydraulic launch assist) system. The model was identical to the black one Ford had shown me over a year ago, but this one was painted blue with "Eaton" written in white letters on the side of one of the cylinders. Could have been the same model for all I know.

It will be interesting to see what else gets the axe at Ford... and DCX and GM as the Rust Belt struggles to remain technologically competitive under a mountain of debt and pension payments.

Meanwhile, Toyota already has more than 20,000 orders for its new Prius that goes on sale October 17th for under $20K. After having driven it in a rally through Sonoma County, it gets my vote for the best new auto technology for 2003. It is a stunner. Detroit has nothing to compare to it. Read my review on EVWORLD.COM

http://www.evworld.com

[kysrsoze]

16. Sheesh the Prius is ugly and small. Why don't they do a larger car?

I believe I heard there was a hybrid civic coming out soon, but how about the midsize models? People generally want larger, more powerful cars these days. An SUV would seem to be a hot seller.

[fortyfeetunder]

17. Wonder if that hybrid Escape will materialize

I had heard rumors Ford was going to debut the Escape as a hybrid in 2004...but when I really needed wheels, found out my Escape story was rumor == perhaps next year?

[Wcross]

11. Nissan is hiring

They are adding 2000 jobs in Tennessee.

[saigon68]

14. Tax cut will buy a lot of nissans

??? I think not.

[kysrsoze]

15. Nissan has had a phenomenal turnaround

Their cars are gorgeous compared to everyone else's (well, except the German cars, but no one can afford those). They've slashed costs by sharing platforms - Altima, Maxima, 350Z, Murano and Quest are all built off the same basic frame design, as are a number of the Infiniti models. Their cars are extremely powerful and nimble, and their quality is very high. I was a little bit wary when they teamed up with Peugeot, but hats off to them.

US automakers could learn a lot from them. There's just no excuse for the awful designs coming out of GM and Ford, and all of the big three should have much better quality by now, especially Daimler-Chrysler.