Ford looking at further job cuts

Ford looking at further job cuts

America’s second largest automaker Ford is preparing for another round of job cuts to lower its expenses on the development of their automobiles and increase profitability. The company is suffering due to the popularity of the Japanese vehicles in the US market with Toyota making huge progress into the market. The situation is made worse with lowering profit margins on cars to lure customers into buying more cars.

The company said that they are planning to close certain plants and laying off more workers to stem steep losses in its key North American vehicle operations. The company is having such a bad time in the market with Strong competition, soaring health-care, and raw material costs that they had to slash its profit forecast twice this year. Ford Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. said in an e-mail message: “The challenge we face isn’t a traditional economic downturn. It’s a new, rapidly evolving, brutally competitive global marketplace.”

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research opined about this move from Ford: “Any kind of restructuring like this is a very holistic kind of thing where nothing is really sacred. That may mean the closing of a couple of more plants.” He also said that the plant in Wixom, Michigan could be one of the one considered for closure.

Their competitors in the domestic market General Motors itself are in talks with the United Auto Workers union to try to slash some health-care benefits for active and retired hourly employees to cut on costs and maintain profitability. Ford would be spending around half of the money GM spends on healthcare this year.