UPDATE 1Ford to cut shifts lay off some 2500 workers
(Adds details, background, byline)
By Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT, March 3 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on
Monday it would eliminate shifts at four U.S. plants and lay
off some 2,500 workers — or almost 5 percent of its remaining
work force — as part of an effort to cut costs and return to
profitability next year.
The layoffs come at a time when the No. 2 U.S. automaker is
offering buyouts and early retirement incentives to all 54,000
of its U.S. factory workers as it attempts to recover from a
$2.7 billion loss in 2007.
Ford said it would run its Chicago and Louisville,
Kentucky, assembly plants on one shift rather than the current
two shifts starting this summer.
Ford’s Chicago plant builds its Ford Taurus and is readying
to ramp up production for the all-new Lincoln MKS luxury sedan
slated to go on sale starting this summer.
The Louisville plant builds the Ford Explorer and Mercury
Mountaineer sport utility vehicles. Taken together the two
plants employ about 4,500 workers represented by the United
Auto Workers union.
In addition, Ford said it would cut a shift of workers at
its Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 in April. That plant makes a
3.0-liter engine. Plans to restart production at Cleveland
Engine Plant No. 1, which makes a larger 3.5-liter engine, have
been pushed back to the fourth quarter from the spring.
Ford said it expected to be able to maintain planned
production volumes at the four plants by keeping them running
more consistently on a single shift and reducing down time. Continued…
