Buyout Offers Sent To 15K Ford Workers

DEARBORN, MI — Ford Motor Company on Wednesday started unveiling its buyout offers to as many as 15,000 employees. In May, the Dearborn automaker said it was aiming to cut about 1,400 salaried workers. Buyout offers range from three to 18 months depending on the employee’s length of service with Ford, according to multiple media reports.

The Patch’s attempt to get further details of the buyout offers from Ford on Friday were unsuccessful. The Patch previously reported that salaried workers from Ford’s North America and Asia Pacific operations would have to make a decision on the buyout offers by the end of September.

The cuts are focused on keeping Ford profitable and on elevating its stock prices, which had fallen some 40 percent in recent years. Ford Motor Company last month fired CEO Mark Fields and replaced him with Jim Hackett in a move meant to shake up the company and keep it on track.

“We expect we’re going to reach the 1,400 voluntary reductions,” Mike Moran, Ford’s global news manager, told the Detroit News. “They would depart from the company by Sept. 30.”

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Ford buyout offers were sent to workers in finance, sales, service, government affairs, legal purchasing and communications departments, the newspaper reported. Ford employs a total of about 15,000 salaried workers in the departments that will be affected with about 9,600 of those workers employed in the U.S., 1,000 in Mexico, 600 in Canada and 4,141 in Asia Pacific.

U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat representing Michigan’s 12th district, expressed concerns about the cuts at Ford last month. “This would have a direct and significant impact on my district, which is the heart and soul of the auto industry and home to the hardest working men and women I know,” she said in a statement.

For more on the story, go to the Detroit News

Photo by Kevork Djansezian / Staff / Getty Images News / Getty Images