Ford is offering buyouts of up to $70,000 to its 41,000 U.S. assembly line workers.
It could get difficult if all 41,000 of Ford’s U.S. factory workers were to accept the automaker’s latest buyout offer. In fact, the company is hoping for a small but unspecified number of employees to accept the offer of up to $70,000 in cash as it looks to trim payroll costs.
A spokesman for Ford says the company is still struggling with “a surplus in employees,” as it struggles to right-size its production base. Reduced capacity means fewer employees will be needed long-term.
Like its cross-town rivals, Ford has been using buyouts for a number of years to trim back its base of United Auto Workers Union-represented employees. Last July, about 1,000 workers took the maker up on its most recent offer.
The new deal would put as much as $70,000 in cash in the hands of relatively new employees, while workers who are approaching retirement anyway could leave early and pocket an extra $60,000.
Ford is considered the strongest of Detroit’s Big Three automakers, right now, though that puts it in an awkward position. It was able to skip the federal bailouts rivals General Motors and Chrysler needed to stay in business. But its relatively strong cash position has made it difficult to sell workers on proposed concessions that would allow Ford to match the reduced labor costs at GM and Chrysler, post-bankruptcy.
If all 41,000 workers took the buyout offer there'd be no one left but the robots. In fact, only a few thousand employees will likely opt to go.
Last month, UAW employees overwhelmingly rejected a package of demands from the automaker. Ford CEO Alan Mulally said last week that this wasn’t a critical setback, but indicated the company would look for other ways to reduce costs before the current UAW contract comes up for renegotiation in 2011.
Significant savings also could be achieved at local plants, union and company officials confirm, by adjusting work rules and making other changes without having to tear up the national agreement.