Ford Motor Co. announced that it will make buyout offers to hourly workers at its several plants across Southeast Michigan and Northern Ohio. The company made buyout offers previously in June and it’s planning to extend another round of offers as the company struggles to reduce production capacity to match declining demand for its cars and trucks.

The company is planning to offer the buyouts to workers at about fourteen plants, starting next week as it looks to trim its workforce to match a declining U.S. market share. Reportedly, Ford posted a $2.7 billion loss in 2007 and has abandoned a long-standing goal of returning to profitability in 2009. The automaker had previously extended buyout offers at plants in Kentucky and Ohio due to the declining demand for large pickup trucks and SUVs.

Ford  is targeting largely truck and SUV plants on its agenda to extend buyout offers. It plans to trim about 15 percent of its salaried expenses by August 1 under the turnaround plans. Those cuts are expected to include involuntary dismissals.

The targeted assembly plants where workers will be offered buyouts include:

• The Louisville and Kentucky plants which produce the Ford F- Series Super Duty trucks, Ford Explorer and Mercury Moutaineer SUVs.
• The Michigan truck plant in Wayne, which makes the Ford Expedition, Focus and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
• The Ohio assembly plant in Avon Lake, that makes Ford’s E-Series vans.
• The Dearborn truck plant in Michigan which makes the Ford F- 150 and Lincoln Mark LT.
• The AutoAlliance joint venture plant in Flat Rock, Michigan which produces the Maxda6 sedan and the Ford Mustang sports car.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm 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.