Ford fires salaried workers

Ford has resorted to firing salaried workers to make the necessary cuts for its on-going restructuring plan. How many have been asked to "depart immediately" isn't known, since Ford's not saying and I'm sure that termination agreements are keeping most of the fired employees from talking. This supposedly is something that Ford hasn't had to do for quite some time, having previously relied on attrition and early-retirement buy-outs. Time for Ford to join the rest of the automotive world in making involuntary cuts, I guess. At least they didn't hand out pink slips with Christmas bonus checks, like a friend's employer did a few years ago. In an email sent from Bill Ford to his employees, he makes the chilling comment, "We're not downsizing temporarily with the hope that conditions will get better," making a distinction between this and the normal up-down cycles in the industry. Those of you who threw a hissy after our recent post on Ford's restructuring will probably not find a lot of comfort in that quote.