Ford to cut 4,000 jobs in North America

Sat Nov 19, 2005 (Reuters) Ford Motor Co., facing a deepening financial crisis, said on Friday it plans to eliminate 4,000 salaried jobs, or 10 percent of its North American white-collar work force, as part of a larger restructuring plan.

A majority of the job cuts -- announced to employees in an e-mail distributed by Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas business -- will be made in the first quarter of 2006, spokesman Oscar Suris said.

The cuts will come through attrition, layoffs and the elimination of some agency and contract positions, Suris said.

They will be in addition to the 2,750 job losses already announced by the automaker this year,

Ford lost $284 million in the third quarter and its automotive division is in the red. Its North American vehicle operations have lost more than $1.4 billion before taxes so far this year.

The company's shares have dropped more than 40 percent since the end of

2004. They hit $7.57 per share on Thursday, the lowest in more than two years, before rebounding to $8.41 per share on Friday.

Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. said last month that the automaker will announce its long-awaited restructuring plan -- dubbed "Way Forward" -- in January.

He also warned that the plan would include "significant plant closings" to help slash costs in North America.

Fields and his team are expected to present Bill Ford with the restructuring plan in December.

Ford, like cross-town rival General Motors Corp., has seen its margins squeezed by intense competition in the U.S. market and by a dramatic slowdown in sales of cash cows such as mid-size and large SUVs due to high gasoline prices.

The two companies are also facing higher costs and a cut in their credit ratings to high-yield, or "junk," status.

Ford has taken a number of steps this year to strengthen its balance sheet, including the sale its Hertz Corp. rental car unit.

It also agreed to bailout former parts subsidiary Visteon Corp. and announced that it intends to increase the production of hybrid vehicles tenfold to 250,000 annually.

Yet another $.02 worth from a proud owner of a 1970 Mach 1 351C @

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Reply to
Grover C. McCoury III
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How very sad. I have always had good luck with American cars, currently have five in the driveway. You just couldn't sell me a Toyota.

Reply to
Scott

Kind of strange. Commercials say the Inovation will be what guides Fords future. No mention of job cuts. I hope they fire the guy who designed the straps holding the Ford 500 gas tanks in place.

Reply to
Art

You REALLY dont know how things work in production monoliths, do you!

Why would you fire a guy for doing what he's told to do?

{editorial} Herein lies the rub in those who yearn for a 'new' Marxist economy... nothing would really change, except that the people involved in such as this could cover their asses much more easily... and there would be NO advise and consent NOR independent audit. {/editorial}

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

It is a good thing that parts of the country are experiencing a requirement for manpower. So if they can consider relocating, their economic future is not totally bleak, at least.

H.

Reply to
Rowbotth

.> > and announced that it intends to increase the production of hybrid vehicles tenfold to 250,000 annually.

I have been very happy with my Ford products (1989 Mustang 5.0 and 1995 Windstar) since I purchased the Ford extended warrantee and it covered significant costs (AC and transmission repair and new paint job on the Mustang and New Transmission and New Engine on the Windstar). They are still daily drivers with 100K on the Mustang and 200K on the Windstar. I heard Bill Ford Jr. in a radio ad yesterday promoting Ford's commitment to hybrids. Given the universally bad reviews the current Ford hybrid has received in comparison to hybrid models from Toyota and Honda I think he would have done better to take a page from the Hyundai book and instead announce a renewed commitment to quality and a 10 year/100K warrantee on all Ford vehicles. I own Ford stock :( and would like to purchase a Ford in the future but the current lineup just doesn't have appeal or make economic sense to me. I hope they are able to get their act together.

Howard

Reply to
Howard Nelson

Indeed GM and Fords market share are down, but their budget problems are akin to the federal government budget problem, extraordinarily high current expenses not lack of income. For the government it is war and disaster costs. For GM and Ford it is the costs of bringing their 20 or more all new models to market and the new more modern plants is which they are being built. GM currently has the largest number of top rated production facilities. Ford revised Rouge plant is state of the art and more efficient than any plant operated by Toyota or Honda. When it comes to cars, Toyotas rebates are actually higher than those of GM and Fords on their new 2006 models with which they compete.

The anti domestic guys would have folks believe Toyotas never break down and never have recalls to fix things that may have gone wrong. As we saw in or business like all manufactures some of Toyotas vehicles are not up to snuff as well. They ALL break down and they all have recalls, that is why they all offer a warranty. The truth is they ALL are building good high quality reliable vehicles today. The only real difference is style and drive home price as well as the vast different in parts costs for imports an domestics.

I fell for that Toyota is better stuff back in 1986 and bought seven Lexus V8s over the next ten years. When I was ready to buy another the dealer wanted me to pay MSRP and I walked. My experience with Lexus convinced me they were no better or worse than any other of the cars I have owned. I switch to a Lincoln LS and it proved to be just as good as the Lexus' I had owned, but the LS cost over 23K less. I added a few thousand and bought a Mustang GT convertible at the same time. Since that time I have owned several more LSs and GTs. Currently I have a 2005 LS Sport and a 2005 GT convertible and a 2006 Zephyr. I have not had a bad car among the dozens I have owned, in a longer time than I can remember. Both the domestic and the imports have all been trouble free Toyotas are good cars but no better than any other and certainly not worth the premium prices that the dealers charge you to drive one home

The reason the anti domestic guys like to post GM and Fords problem in GM and Ford NG is simply because they are \ trying to justify to themselves the fact that they paid too much for a car that is in fact just another average car. ;)

mike hunt

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Apparently, you're Walmart- shopping countrymen don't agree.

-Rich

Reply to
Rich

Nice car

Reply to
Dale Yonz

Actually I worked for Kodak 5 years. I know exactly how things work in big companies.

Reply to
Art

Actually Mike the reason why ford and GM are ailing is no one is interested in their hohum cars.

I am thinking of replacing my Avalon with a minivan. I drove the Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota. The Chrysler is $5k overpriced so they can advertise a big rebate. I didn't bother getting pricing on the Ford because it wasn't close to the other models in quality and features. Both the Honda and Toyota are well priced. You can can a new Sienna CE which is their cheapest model but still reasonably equipped with a discount that brings it down to an amazing $18500. We will probably get a high end Odessey though. There was no point in driving a GM minivan though.... they are pathetic.

Reply to
Art

Then I would think you'd know about "production engineering' and MBA's influence on them.

Care to modify your statement?

"Art" wrote:

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

Nope. Ford has been strapping gas tanks to cars for a hundred years. No excuse for the screw up. It would be like Kodak putting out film with leaky cartridges. Ever hear of that happening?

Reply to
Art

Questions: If Iraq started making cars next year. Would you buy one? Would you give them tax abatements for building in your state?

Reply to
Thadius Fudpucker

Toyota and Honda offer rebates as well. At least you did not have your mind made up before up shopped. LOL

An astute buyer will always drive all those that meets the needs, then buy the one with the total drive home price that best suits their budget.

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

They would probably manufacture flying carpets :))

Reply to
Dale Yonz

Did you read the details? The supplier changed the material, apprently without Ford's concurence. Ford found the problem during extended life testing. None have failed in the feild. It is sort of like the way Toyota discoverd the sludge problem during extensive life testing - oh wait, they let the Customers do that for them didn't they. Oh well at least Toyta iodentified that balljoint problem - oh wait, they let the Custmoer find that one to. Oh well at leat they were on top of the Sienna gas tank falling out, you know the same sort of problem as defective gas tank straps.

Ed

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

If it would help bring our soldiers home and the car was well built, suited my needs and reasonably priced, why not. As far as state tax abatements go, the most sickening one went to Dell in NC. I think they got $300 million in subsidies.

Reply to
Art

You will probably enjoy this article:

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Perhaps some of the people at Ford who write press releases need to be laid off. If you have an entire department who's job it is to publicize recalls to the world, you can bet the world will hear about them.

Reply to
Art

That would really suck to have this company go down the gutters of course I did remember some articles about ford not going to supply a certain amount of money for nascar next year not for sure about gm..... That chick in the blue shirt either in the mercury or ford commercials is hot! Does anybody know who I'm talking about?! Anyway everybody have a goodnight

nate

Reply to
fordltd

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