Ford to slash jobs, close factories

[Shadow]

Reuters

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Monday said it would slash up to 30,000 jobs and shed more than a quarter of its production capacity as it moves to cut costs and stem losses in market share, building on a surprising 19 percent gain in fourth-quarter earnings.

Ford's bonds rose and its shares gained 6 percent after quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations on strength at its finance arm and a narrower loss in the crucial North American market.

Ford, which has struggled with a junk bond rating on its debt, said it would shut down 14 manufacturing sites, including seven assembly plants, and cut between 25,000 to 30,000 jobs from plant payrolls.

Ford's larger rival, General Motors Corp. said in November that it would cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close a dozen North American plants. Both automakers are struggling against high pension and health care costs and increased Japanese competition.

The company said those steps, which will idle plants in St. Louis, Atlanta, Michigan and Canada, would cut 26 percent of its production capacity by the end of 2008.

Ford also said it would cut material costs by $6 billion, vowing to streamline parts purchasing, even as it rolls out more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and small cars to respond to consumer concern over high gas prices.

[Doc]

shadow said:

Reuters

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Monday said it would slash up to 30,000 jobs and shed more than a quarter of its production capacity as it moves to cut costs and stem losses in market share, building on a surprising 19 percent gain in fourth-quarter earnings.

Ford's bonds rose and its shares gained 6 percent after quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations on strength at its finance arm and a narrower loss in the crucial North American market.

Ford, which has struggled with a junk bond rating on its debt, said it would shut down 14 manufacturing sites, including seven assembly plants, and cut between 25,000 to 30,000 jobs from plant payrolls.

Ford's larger rival, General Motors Corp. said in November that it would cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close a dozen North American plants. Both automakers are struggling against high pension and health care costs and increased Japanese competition.

The company said those steps, which will idle plants in St. Louis, Atlanta, Michigan and Canada, would cut 26 percent of its production capacity by the end of 2008.

Ford also said it would cut material costs by $6 billion, vowing to streamline parts purchasing, even as it rolls out more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and small cars to respond to consumer concern over high gas prices.

I heard that the Japanese, and others, do not pay their employees any pension, retirement, health care. This makes the playing field very uneven,

As long as we are letting foreign interests dominate America business (which is NOT in our National interests as a free people), we will continue downward on a spiral to Hell, in the financial, economic sense. It doesn't take an idiot to see that it's impossible to compete and survive understand such circumstances. Only the blind and the purposefully decieved could miss this truth. And, I guess that would mean us, or US, the American common people.

The new guy at Ford, who is he, the grandson of Henry? He was talking some strategy of getting all the sales people to just "get in there and just make those sales! Pitch pitch pitch! Agressive ads."

They'll run out of advertising money in a few years. He is either an imbecile, or a paid ninnu meant to lead Ford doen the commode. It will be a sad, sad day people. Japan, well, sorry to say, does make the better cars, cause we cant afford to make them here because the Japanese underpay their workers. It's only a matter of time.

When American employees have nothing left to offer, no jobs, no future, and bleak prospects of survival---what will happen next?

[Shadow]

One part of the overall problem is that most of the parts to
build the cars with aren't even produced here anymore.
Outsourced to other countries with cheaper labor and quite
often lower quality standards.

Yet all they seem interested in is their salary, usually obscene,
and the companies bottom line. At the rate things are going
their big salaries and the companies bottom lines will both go
*POOF* in a few more years...

[beatlies]

doctorrobert said:

shadow said:

Reuters

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Monday said it would slash up to 30,000 jobs and shed more than a quarter of its production capacity as it moves to cut costs and stem losses in market share, building on a surprising 19 percent gain in fourth-quarter earnings.

Ford's bonds rose and its shares gained 6 percent after quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations on strength at its finance arm and a narrower loss in the crucial North American market.

Ford, which has struggled with a junk bond rating on its debt, said it would shut down 14 manufacturing sites, including seven assembly plants, and cut between 25,000 to 30,000 jobs from plant payrolls.

Ford's larger rival, General Motors Corp. said in November that it would cut 30,000 manufacturing jobs and close a dozen North American plants. Both automakers are struggling against high pension and health care costs and increased Japanese competition.

The company said those steps, which will idle plants in St. Louis, Atlanta, Michigan and Canada, would cut 26 percent of its production capacity by the end of 2008.

Ford also said it would cut material costs by $6 billion, vowing to streamline parts purchasing, even as it rolls out more fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles and small cars to respond to consumer concern over high gas prices.

I heard that the Japanese, and others, do not pay their employees any pension, retirement, health care. This makes the playing field very uneven,

As long as we are letting foreign interests dominate America business (which is NOT in our National interests as a free people), we will continue downward on a spiral to Hell, in the financial, economic sense. It doesn't take an idiot to see that it's impossible to compete and survive understand such circumstances. Only the blind and the purposefully decieved could miss this truth. And, I guess that would mean us, or US, the American common people.

The new guy at Ford, who is he, the grandson of Henry? He was talking some strategy of getting all the sales people to just "get in there and just make those sales! Pitch pitch pitch! Agressive ads."

They'll run out of advertising money in a few years. He is either an imbecile, or a paid ninnu meant to lead Ford doen the commode. It will be a sad, sad day people. Japan, well, sorry to say, does make the better cars, cause we cant afford to make them here because the Japanese underpay their workers. It's only a matter of time.

When American employees have nothing left to offer, no jobs, no future, and bleak prospects of survival---what will happen next?

Actually the Japanese companies do give their employees (who have relatively stronger unions than the weak US unions) health benefits, pensions etc. On top of that the Japanese have guaranteed socialized health care that gives them much metter medical care and health than Americans have, who are stuck in the only industrialized nation on the planet, the United States, that does not have universal government health coverage for its citizens.

This means much higher costs for Ford and GM, it's part of what drove Chrysler to complete failure and takeover by a company in Germany. In addition, Japanese cars are much better engineered and constructed than those of the two US companies.

Japanese companies are starting to outsource to China, India and other countries as well for lower wages, but Japan's government and society evidently cares much more about its own people that the USA ruling class and so they are regulating that job loss and protecting Japanese workers' jobs better.

America is in a downward spiral of hatred and greed not caused by foreign interests, it's the result of our own domestic head cannibals.