4,000 Ford workers take buyout
During a conference call yesterday, FoMoCo's President, Mark Fields, announced that over 4,000 workers would take early retirement from the Ford-owned Visteon plant in Michigan.Employees had until last Friday to make their decision and of the 10,400 workers currently employed at the plant, 40-percent have decided to take the buyout. That rate was higher than expected and will hopefully be an indicator of the 75k employees Ford hopes to retire by the end of 2008.
Ford intends to shutter 16 plants in the next two years and workers have until November 27th to take the buyout Ford has offered.
[Source: The Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rastus 10:19AM (10/24/2006)
16 plant closures within 2 years:
A good start.
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noub 10:27AM (10/24/2006)
if things continue that way, ford will be profitable soon ...
by the way, who will make the ford cars ???
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Rastus 10:52AM (10/24/2006)
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your FINAL PAYCHECK. Spend it wisely!! This time next month the lights at this plant will be turned off for good! Once the gates are locked shut, this plant will never...I repeat NEVER BUILD ANOTHER FORD PRODUCT AGAIN"!
Sing it now(!!!):
WHEN THE SAINTS
COME MARCHING IN
We are trav'ling in the footsteps
Of those who've gone before
And we'll all be reunited,
On a new and sunlit shore,
Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
And when the sun begins to shine
And when the sun begins to shine
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the sun begins to shine
Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the trumpet sounds its call
Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
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Stoneman 11:00AM (10/24/2006)
Soooooooo Rastus, I take it you hate Fords ?
Don't hold back your true feelings.
Stoneman
http://www.stonemanautoreview.com
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Rastus 11:27AM (10/24/2006)
Ok, fine, for those of you who aren't so full of cheer, ...and for those who like to drown their sorrows in a pitcher of Miller:
I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
Id sit on his lap in that big old buick and steer as we drove through town
Hed tousle my hair and say son take a good look around
This is your hometown, this is your hometown
This is your hometown, this is your hometown
In `65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown, my hometown, my hometown
Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there aint nobody wants to come down here no more
Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back to
Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown
Last night me and kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
Im thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good
Look around
This is your hometown
- Bruce Springstees, My Hometown
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WhiteGrace 11:33AM (10/24/2006)
This is so sad. My heart goes out to Ford employees who find themselves in such a difficult place. Good luck to you all. I like Ford cars. I've owned several. A 1957 Fairlane Sunliner, A 1965 Mustang, A 1969 Maverick. All fine cars. My son is currently driving an Escort. A well made bit of transportation technology.
But I have to take this opportunity to say hello to Ford management. You people had almost 50 years to answer the challenge from Europe and Japan. You were not smart enough to do so. You were greedy and slothful. It was always about how much money you could make. Not about a contribution to moving society and improving the human condition. Shame shame on you. I hope that the darkness that you have caused to come over your employees encompasses all your lives as well. You deserve to suffer many times more than the workers you so have so blatently abbused. Same to you GM.
PS: I'm sorry this is so dark. But I really really hate modern day Robber Barons.
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Ken Slanker 1:08PM (10/24/2006)
How many Ford plants in Mexico will close?
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Richard Warren 3:20PM (10/24/2006)
#7 Of course the answer is none, they may even build another one or expand.
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Mr_Oak 4:53PM (10/24/2006)
WhiteGrace: My first car was a '77 Thunderbird.
Being someone who works on Wall Street, some of what I have to say here may come as a surprise to you. There was a time when making a good, useful and reliable product, selling it for a fair price, and standing behind that product was a formula for success. These are the principles that the likes of Ford, GM, and Chrysler employed in their rise to prominence. Those were the innocent times. You made a product, you sell that product, and then you made some more. Now companies are so market driven, and not the market for the actual product, but the stock market. Appeasing the investor is more important than the product itself. The corporation greatest resource, their employees are of least importance in this equation. in 2004, the company that I worked for made $1.9B net profit in the last qtr. Less that a week after announcing their earnings report, they cut 12,000 jobs. The stock shot up, and every was happy. The next year, they aquired a competitor, cut some more jobs and the stock went up some more. The cycle never ends.
The more alarming trend where the stock market pushes companies to make more and more profit at the expense of the quality of the product, or the welfare of it's corporate citizens. Greed is causing us to export our wealth. Our industries are being decimated while we transfer our wealth to Asia, our standard of living goes down, while their's soar. I have no problem with anyone prosperity, but this equates to shooting oneself in the foot. Meanwhile, the Robber Barons as you so aptly labelled them, get fatter. Well, atleast this helps with our illegal immigration problem.
Way to go Ford & GM.
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