Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday that it will cut 500 jobs at its crossover assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario. Ford of Canada spokeswoman Laura More said that the company will eliminate the third shift in the plant’s body and paint work areas. The plant makes Lincoln MKX, Ford Edge and Ford Flex crossovers and employs a total of 3,000 workers presently.

In an attempt to meet the job-cutting goal, Ford is offering retirement incentives to eligible employees at the Oakville assembly plant. The retirement package includes a $75,000 allowance and $35,000 to purchase a new Ford vehicle, said More.

The job cuts are the result of the weakening sales for crossover vehicles. The company hopes that the significant step will help align staffing with production, which was slowed because of “softening of vehicle sales in the U.S.,” said More.

According to Autodata Corp., the U.S. crossover sales fell 12 percent industry-wide in August as compared to a year earlier. However, through August, U.S. sales of the Ford  Edge rose 11.7 percent from the same period in 2007. The sales for Lincoln MKX were down  4.0 percent in the same month. Ford has sold a total of 5,593 units of Ford Flex, including 2,010 in August. The Ford Flex debuted this summer.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Ford. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.