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Ford to cut another 10,000 jobs

Ford Motor Company admitted Friday that they could no longer hang onto there position as the nations number two car company or return its core auto unit to profitability as soon as promised. The company said the new cuts will allow it to save $5 billion in the coming years, as it tries to adjust to its more "modest" place in the U.S. market. The company also said that it will not be able to restore its North American auto unit to profitability before 2009. (2008 was the given target date) The moves announced on Friday will mean at least two more plant closings in the next two years and a cut of another 10,000 jobs. In addition, all 75,000 U.S. hourly workers will be offered cash incentives as high as $140,000 if they give up some promised benefits and leave the company. Ford also said that its now shooting for a much smaller share of the U.S. auto sales, about fourteen to fifteen percent going forward, starting in the year 2007. Chairman Bill Ford, whose great-grandfather Henry Ford founded the company more than a century ago, said he's not concerned with Ford's loss of the number two position in the market. "Frankly our ranking doesn't matter," he said in a response to a reporter's question Friday. "You've seen companies chase market share with sometimes disastrous results. It's more important for this plan to be based on conservative assumptions."

posted by Anonymous @ 9/20/2006 10:35:00 PM