Ford plans to offer buyouts to 54,000

Ford also plans to reduce its salaried work force through attrition.

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will offer buyout and early retirement packages to 54,000 U.S. hourly workers in an effort to cut more jobs and replace workers with those making a lower wage.

Chief Executive Alan Mulally said the new round of buyouts was negotiated with the United Auto Workers union. In addition, Ford plans to continue to reduce its salaried work force this year, mostly through attrition.

Mulally said the first round of buyouts would be offered immediately to hourly workers who had been employed at already closed plants in Atlanta, St. Louis, Edison, N.J., and Norfolk, Va. Those offers close the week of Feb. 28.

Employees are expected to leave the company by March 1, Mulally said during a conference call with reporters and industry analysts to discuss the company’s 2007 earnings.

Although the plants have been closed, some workers continue to get salary and benefits under the job protection provisions of the company’s contract with UAW. Ford said the number of workers left at the plants is small, probably less than 1,000.

The second round of buyouts would go to workers at all other U.S. Ford locations, opening Feb. 18 and closing the week of March 17. Mulally said workers who take packages in this round would likely leave the company starting April 1, with all of them gone by year’s end.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told reporters at an event Thursday in Detroit that the union agreed to the packages and knows that Ford wants to bring in more lower-paid workers.

The company said it has reduced its total U.S. hourly work force by 35,500 since the end of 2005. Ford said it had 99,500 at the end of 2005, and that figure dropped to 64,000 by the end of last year. The buyout offers are being made to the 54,000 hourly Ford workers represented by the UAW.

Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair said the company will continue to reduce its salaried work force in 2008 “primarily through attrition.” The company said the number of full-time salaried workers already has been cut by 10,800 since the end of 2005, from 34,500 to 23,700 at the end of last year.

Under the 2006 program, hourly workers were offered eight packages ranging from $35,000 to $140,000, including one package that offered up to $15,000 per year for four years of college tuition. About 33,600 hourly workers left under the 2006 buyout program.