Question about Ford Motor Co

[OwnedByFerrets]

Is this plan an effort to get back into the black or just an effort to undermine and eventually kill the union worker altogether?

[whistle]

1. I think both with one addition, allow transfer of assets overseas

...without having to export union obligations.

[johnnie]

2. From what I saw this morning

What they are saying made sense. It comes down to the cost of gas. They said that their F series pickups are 1/3 of their sales and because of gas being so high it almost stopped the sales of those trucks all together.

And this isn't just hitting the union, a hell of a lot of salary employees are getting the boot. The thing is, gasoline will never be as "affordable" as it once was and the automobile companies need to get their shit together. To be honest. I blame the bush administration a hell of a lot more than I blame the CEO's at Ford.

[JPZenger]

3. I Worry About Lack of New Products

I worry that Ford is putting too much emphasis on reducing their costs, as opposed to developing new cars and trucks that people want to buy. They don't have many new products in the pipeline, and some of their models are getting out of date, particularly their minivans and their full sized sedans.

They do have a new crossover coming out later this year, but it took them too long to get that to market. It is basically the same as a Mazda version that has been out for several months already. It took Ford a full two years to come out with their version of the Mazda 6, compared to their Mazda division.

The reports on this morning's news is that Ford's losses this year will be much larger than had been forecast.

[Love Bug]

4. Ford's been in big trouble for a long time

It's all just coming to a head right now.

On a related topic: I heard GM has more than twice as many retirees drawing benefits than workers to support them. I guess that's what happens when you are a company that lasts decades. I imagine Ford has the same issue.

Just think how much healthier Ford and GM would be if we had universal health care. I understand a good chunk of the price of a car goes for healthcare coverage for their employees.

[Greyhound]

5. GM & Ford wouldn't be in the position they are in had they not

fucked their workers for decades. After needlessly laying off thousands and thousands of workers while continuing to make ugly, inefficient, unreliable, pieces of shit. They have been years behind their Japanese and European competitors for the last two, maybe three, generations, yet the only solution they can come up with is that it's the workers fault and they have to be laid off. :grr:

Couldn't have anything to do with utterly incompetent, hereditary management could it?

[rrasile]

6. There's a Ford in Your Future

These problems didn't start yesterday. When I started driving people yelled when they saw me driving something other then my 56 Ford with a police inceptor engine. I was what people called a Ford Man. Then around the early seventies while I was tooling around in my 400ci LTD Brougham some Arab decided to screw the world with the oil embargo. At seven MPGs it didn't take long to find an old VW bug. After that storm I picked out a Bronco Two and I swear that I never had a car that had to be towed as much as it did. Everything that could happen did plus things that the Ford garage never heard before. Like the blue paint turning gray and a dash board that burned, not to mention the distributor Module failures that I lost count of.
I won't mention what I drive now but it sure as hell isn't a ford.