DETROIT (AP) — The Ford Motor Company has offered buyout or retirement incentive packages to all of its 41,000 hourly workers as it tries to further reduce its factory work force.þþFord, the healthiest of Detroit’s three automakers and the only one to avoid government aid and bankruptcy protection, still has more workers than it needs to produce cars and trucks at current sales levels, a company spokesman, Mark Truby, said.þþMr. Truby would not say how many workers Ford expected to take the packages, which included cash payments and other incentives like short-term health insurance coverage and vouchers to buy cars.þþ“We’re just going to try to right-size our manned capacity and align it with demand,” Mr. Truby said.þþUnder a new contract with the United Automobile Workers union, the employees get most of their pay for a year, depending on seniority, and a portion of their wages for another year before they are removed from the company payroll.þþIn the past, laid-off workers went into the “jobs bank” and were paid indefinitely even if their factory had been shut down. But the union agreed to end the practice earlier this year when all three Detroit automakers ran into financial troubles.þþThe buyout package, offered to workers with at least a year of service, includes $50,000 cash and the choice of a $25,000 voucher to buy a vehicle or $20,000 more in cash. The deal also includes basic health care coverage for six months, Ford said. Retirement-eligible workers can take the buyout but must wait up to 18 months before retiring.þþThe retirement package includes $40,000 for skilled trades workers and $20,000 for nonskilled employees. To be eligible, workers must have at least 30 years of service, be age 55 or older with 10 or more years of work, or be 65 with at least a year of service, the company said.þþEarlier this year, only 1,000 workers took similar packages, the company said in July.þþFord started 2009 with 89,000 employees in North America but reduced that number to 80,200 as of Sept. 30 through attrition, buyouts and layoffs.þ
Source: NY Times
