Ford to cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs, close 14 facilities by 2012

ford cars and trucks are junk they have had 40 years to make a car and truck as good as toyota and datsun .

where are those 30,000 people gonna get jobs? GM is gonna make cuts too, where are all those people gonna get get jobs? When is this country gonna wake up. Its headed towards another depression, and its all caused by greedy CEO's trying to make more money by shipping all our work out of the country. freshen up on your Chinese cuz its just a matter of time before were all speaking it.

Ford is thinking only in making cars at lower cost, no matter if this causes laid-offs in USA, for example new crossover EDGE will be built in Canada, FUSION, MILAN, ZAPHIR is currently being build in Mexico, what is next?

The Chinese are going to come out with a car for 10,000.That is why everyone is going down.BUY AMERICAN.

the sad thing is, is that buying "american" isnt even what it seems anymore. So called "american" cars arnt even made here anymore. My dodge was made in mexico i think ( there or canada i cant remember) but my dads toyota was made here. so we either buy "american" and non US workers make it and American CEO's get richer, or we buy Toyota keep the american workers employed who make them and let the japanese CEO's get richer...

We have a montana,it breaks all the time.Blew the head gasket at 26000 miles.Do we make anything?Parts from here parts from there.I think maybe we put it together.Ours was a monday car.

You guys crack me up. So you think 1 high paid CEO is putting Ford and GM out of business. What about the thousands of over paid under worked union clowns. Getting paid super high wages and benifits for what they do vs the real working guy. Thats the real problem. And the union will fight to the end to bring both companies down, while the foreign companies come in and take over. If the unions got reasable, worked with the compoany and made it stronger, both could be even better. Sure some will lose jobs, but they will survive..

Plan and simple, Ford isn't producing a product of quality as they used to produce (and haven't keep up with those that are) for yrs now. They can't even sell cars when they lower to "dealer cost", that when they do sell a car their losing thousands of dollars per car. Lets not mention they won't slow down their production and lay of a few instead of still producing at top rate and filling up lots full of non selling cars and then having to lay off thousands. QUALITY is not job 1 at Ford anymore.

Americans believe in the free market. Anti-Americans, instead promote the myth of 'Buy American'.'Buy American' means protect top management that do not come from where the work gets done, blame bad designs on the unions, blame the foreigners, reward themselves with big bonuses, must hire reams of white collar assistants (because they don't know how the work gets done), and then downsize - fire American workers. Those protected by 'Buy American' view workers and engineers as costs. Patriots, instead, view management as a necessary evil to be held to a minimum AND view innovators (the workers) as assets.

Notice what saved 1979 Chryserl and 1981 Ford. Americans 'bought the best'. They stopped buying Fords and Chryslers. Therefore the only problem in both companies was quickly removed. Townsend and Richard who did not even drive were replaced by a 'car guy'- Iacocca. Henry Ford who did not have a drivers license and who reoutinely stifled innovation was removed in 1981.

The engineers designed the 1965 Ford Mustang. What is the next car designed by innovators in Ford? Ford Taurus. First car designed not by accountants in 22 years. Taurus saved Ford Motor. Why? Top managment who lied - said the purpose of a company is its profits - were replaced by patriots. Patriots - people who come from where the work gets done and can appreciate innovation. Patriots say the purpose of a company is its products. By removing Henry Ford in 1981, Ford finally had profits in 1990. It takes that long to remove the problems created by business school graduates who could not see innovation if it was even pushed up their nose.

That is GM's problem. Rick Wagoner is an MBA - a 'bean counter' in industry lingo. He cannot innovate. He never worked where the work gets done. His entire life was in finance. Until we buy enough Toyotas and Hondas to vote out Rick Wagoner, then Wagoner will contiue to destroy American jobs ... and get rich doing so.

Think like this:All our good jobs go over sea's.We are left with low paying jobs,high health ins,credit card rates that suck you dry.What are you going to do?
Blame it on the ceo's,blame it on the union's?
Maybe we should blame it on our self's for letting them do it.
Maybe American people need to stand up,be strong like we use to be.

a gonzalez wrote:

Ford is thinking only in making cars at lower cost, no matter if this causes laid-offs in USA, for example new crossover EDGE will be built in Canada, FUSION, MILAN, ZAPHIR is currently being build in Mexico, what is next?

I work for a Tier 1 auto supplier as a manager. I am always amazed to go to a Big 2 plant and see people sitting on their butts, eating or smoking(!) as they clip two little widgets on an engine and hand-start a bolt. These people are making more money than I am. It is time for the UAW and its overpaid, low-skilled workers to wake up. The Big 2 are doing what they have to do to survive. The Asian companies come here, open plants, have no unions, pay comparative wages, and have great products that people want to buy. How can a company make money when it makes the same car under four different brands just to fill its plants with work? How can it make money when it has to pay people over $25 an hour for work that deserves $7 an hour? I worked harder as a bagger at a grocery store than these people.

Neither low quality, nor overpaid workers and bosses,
nor imports, nor competition put the knife in FORD's ribs.
Rather history (1974) is repeating itself.

Oil crisis = high fuel prices = low demand for gas guzzlers = layoffs.

Poor planning, short sighted marketing, and blind greed have laid FORD low.

In short, STUPIDITY.

In Short, UNIONS.

Vince Foster wrote:

In Short, UNIONS.

No, ghoul, VERY bad MANAGEMENT PLANNING.

Management in the auto industry are not unionized.
The Union workers are blameless on this one.

The TOP elcheon of the executive corps are to blame for this catastrophe. No one else.

Ok Ok,
First off, don't believe everything that the Toyota salesman tells you. Japanese companies put big money into polishing their image and misleading the public.
The statistical truth is: Yes, some American cars are assembled in Canada or Mexico, however statistically 80% of all car parts are from US, and 75% of all cars are assembled here! that's a lot of critical jobs. Compare to Toyota: 40% domestic parts content, or Lexus 3% content. Toyota boasts about having 10 manuf. plants in this country, not a lot considering every few months GM announces closing twice as many plants as that.
A famous quote "what's good for the American car industry is good for America" is still true. It's still very true that every time you buy a foreign car your sending American money and jobs overseas. That which we don't get back. You may not see the effect now, but just wait until your kids start looking for jobs and can't find anything but a job at Wal-Mart. Then you'll realize how we've let all these foreign companies erode into our living standard and destroy this country. BUY AMERICAN.

Ken, I agree with your basic sentiment that GM and Ford have a larger labor footprint in the US than Toyota. But your numbers are a little off. 75% of Toyotas sold in the USA are made here (and this percentile is growing). Factoring in Canadian and Mexican plants, this ratio is actually comparable to the domestic manufacturers. But the domestic manufacturers have a larger US market share, so the aggregate footprint is larger. Also, GM isn't closing twice as many plants as Toyota's 10 every few months. The 9 GM is planning on closing by 2010 alone is fewer than that, and that's their latest closing announcement since 2003.

The decline of the American economy as manufacturing jobs go to Asia is vastly misunderstood and overstated. Is industrial manufacturing on the ropes in the US? Probably. It's been declining for years - textiles, metals, autos, and so on. But the number of jobs (yes, even middle-class jobs) and the GDP have been growing even faster than industrial manufacturing is sinking. The economic base is transforming into technology and services. This will almost certainly continue - industrial workers in Asia are just about impossible to compete with in a global economy. Hits the American industrial worker hard, which is very unfortunate, but the doom-and-gloom scenarios about the American economy completely going to Asia are ludicrous. Our economy is just transforming sectors.

John, interesting points. Yes, there is a large number of Toyota's manufactured here, the 40% or 3% number I was quoting was parts content, meaning that a large percentage of cars "assembled" here are of parts imported from Japan. As for manufacturing plants, I was exaggerating on that "double" figure, however the other statistics I mentioned were researched.

Also, this transition you mention from an industrial economy to a technology and service economy isn't as relativly painless as you may think. The reality is this country NEEDS skilled workers and a strong manufacturing sector. It is an essential element of this country being a world power. It was a huge factor in us winning World War II. The Chrysler bailout wasn't a mistake, our government will pay to keep heavy machinery manufacturing in this country afloat, and at the expense of our tax money. In fact, there is a law that states that no defense supplier can be owned by a foreign entity, hence why the Chrysler-Mercedes situation is technically a "merger of equals". When you make the choice to buy a cheaper Korean car to save yourself a few bucks, the reality is that eventually the government may take your tax money and give it to the US car manufacturers to make up the sales difference. So in the end your not really saving any money. Saying that we just can't compete with other nations in the manufactoring sector is almost the same as saying we are no longer a super power worthy of respect, and our government will do anything it can to keep that from being the case.

Hell, why have free trade agreements then? But they sure could be reworked in our favor some.

And, yes we do need a strong skilled labor force here in the U.S. but when the union wants, say $30/hr for a worker to do the same job 10 foreigners will do for $3/hr, with near quality how do you expect to keep the jobs here???

Ken wrote:

John, interesting points. Yes, there is a large number of Toyota's manufactured here, the 40% or 3% number I was quoting was parts content, meaning that a large percentage of cars "assembled" here are of parts imported from Japan. As for manufacturing plants, I was exaggerating on that "double" figure, however the other statistics I mentioned were researched.

Also, this transition you mention from an industrial economy to a technology and service economy isn't as relativly painless as you may think. The reality is this country NEEDS skilled workers and a strong manufacturing sector. It is an essential element of this country being a world power. It was a huge factor in us winning World War II. The Chrysler bailout wasn't a mistake, our government will pay to keep heavy machinery manufacturing in this country afloat, and at the expense of our tax money. In fact, there is a law that states that no defense supplier can be owned by a foreign entity, hence why the Chrysler-Mercedes situation is technically a "merger of equals". When you make the choice to buy a cheaper Korean car to save yourself a few bucks, the reality is that eventually the government may take your tax money and give it to the US car manufacturers to make up the sales difference. So in the end your not really saving any money. Saying that we just can't compete with other nations in the manufactoring sector is almost the same as saying we are no longer a super power worthy of respect, and our government will do anything it can to keep that from being the case.

Dave wrote:

You guys crack me up. So you think 1 high paid CEO is putting Ford and GM out of business. What about the thousands of over paid under worked union clowns. Getting paid super high wages and benifits for what they do vs the real working guy. Thats the real problem. And the union will fight to the end to bring both companies down, while the foreign companies come in and take over. If the unions got reasable, worked with the compoany and made it stronger, both could be even better. Sure some will lose jobs, but they will survive..

IT IS THE HEALTH CARE COSTS! Quit blaming unions! IBM is struggling right now with the same issue. HEALTHCARE COSTS, and they are not union. Turn off the AM radio.

We should just stop buying cars anyway. Car manufacturers should make a change of skin for people to buy instead. Buying new cars just makes more garbage that there is NO place to put anymore. Come to think of it everyone should stop buying everything, & dtop making garbage in general.