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'Black Monday' looms over Ford's future
Ten plants, 25,000 jobs ride on Bill Ford's 'Way Forward' strategy to be announced Monday.
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News

Ford Motor Co. workers already have a name for tomorrow.

"It's Black Monday," said Mark Mockaitis, a line worker at Ford's assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn.

Like workers from Wixom to St. Louis to Mexico, Mockaitis is anxiously awaiting Monday morning when Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Ford Jr. takes the podium in Dearborn to outline a massive restructuring plan he calls the "Way Forward."

As The Detroit News first reported Dec. 7, Ford will shutter at least 10 assembly and parts plants and cut at least 25,000 blue-collar jobs in North America over the next five years, according to people familiar with the plan.

The automaker also plans to cut 4,000 salaried jobs by April 1. The layoffs begin this week. Ford also will commit to reducing its number of top executives by March 1.

While workers like Mockaitis wonder where their jobs will be tomorrow, Wall Street waits to see whether the plan goes far enough.

The company that led America to greatness and put the world on wheels now faces one of the biggest challenges in its 103-year history. And for Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, the stakes are not only the fate of a storied company, but the legacy of one of America's last great dynasties.

"It's the most serious crisis at Ford in modern times," said David Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. "I think they view this as a last shot."

The situation could hardly be more critical. Ford's market value has plunged by an astonishing $40 billion since 2001. Its North American automotive business is hemorrhaging cash and market share.

Ford posted a net profit of $1.88 billion for the first nine months of 2005, but its North American unit has lost more than $1.4 billion before taxes. The numbers are expected to look even grimmer Monday when final 2005 financial results are reported.

Meanwhile, Ford's domestic brands -- Ford, Lincoln and Mercury -- saw their combined share of the U.S. market fall 4.7 percent last year, from 18.3 percent in 2004 to 17.4 percent in 2005. A decade earlier, Ford's market share stood at nearly 25.6 percent. Every percentage point of market share represents 170,000 vehicles.

"We do have a North American auto business issue and we are committed to fixing that," Bill Ford said. "It's going to be painful for some people."

So far, Ford has responded by cutting its white-collar work force, selling its Hertz rental car business and reshuffling senior management. But one fundamental reality remains unchanged.

Ford's North American manufacturing operations still look a lot like they did when the company built one out of every four cars and trucks on the road. Ford has the factory capacity to build 4.5 million vehicles in North America, but produced just 3.3 million last year. As a result, Ford's factory utilization rate is the lowest in the industry -- just 79 percent, Harbour Consulting said last week.

 

Thats a lot of jobs for restructuring...I cant help but think ford is going to poopoo more and more.

 

Even the best of companies get too big and have to downsize....this isnt the end for Ford....

DCX and GM have all gone thru these phases....and since other companies are getting bigger, it only stands to reason that someones gotta give up a lil something in return....

Also, just because they are restructuring, doesnt mean they will get worse.....it might actually help them to actually build some quality products for a change

Yeah, I might as well ask to win the lottery....

 

those guys are all union workers, so they do receive some money to keep them afloat when laid off...

 

thats a damn shame.

 

arent you a union member?

 

not by choice. anyways did wixom close?

 

Ford planned this far ahead with boring vehicles, lack of performance, and giving no real reason why to buy a Ford.



-Matt-

 

On a related note, my Nephew is now a Mopar convert after having owned a new Grand Am, Impala and Monte Carlo that all had "issues", he is now the proud owner of a Cool Vanilla Dodge Magnum 3.5 High Output! I think an Uncle had undue influence in his decision.

 

Know whats sad, on average the CEO's of these companies make 10% of the company profits, but when things go wrong it's they poor guy on the assembly line barely feeding his family who gets fired. Welcome to corparate America, it's pretty sickening.