In the wake of the announcement by GM that it will have to close five plants, Ford has made a different announcement.
Ford was ahead of the game when it comes to moving toward the production of SUVs and trucks and deleting sedans from the market. Because of their forward-thinking approach, this brand will have to shift some jobs around, but won’t cut any jobs in the process of slowing the production of sedans. While they won’t add any new jobs either, the Ford team will remain intact and won’t cause any major job losses.
Jobs will have the be Shuffled
In order to help workers keep their jobs, but transition away from sedans for the future, this team has to be creative and move some jobs around. In Kentucky, 500 workers will have to move from one plant to another to add focus to the F-Series pickup trucks, the Ford Expedition, and the Lincoln Navigator. This change moves 500 people from a plant that makes the smaller crossover vehicles to one that builds these larger models. That’s just the beginning of the changes, however, and workers in plants that build cars will have to move as well.
The team of Ford employees in Michigan will see changes as well. They will move 500 jobs from the plant that makes the Mustang and Lincoln Continental to a plant that makes the transmissions for the pickup trucks. This will reduce one of the shifts at the plant for the cars but will keep these workers nearby in the transmission plant. Unfortunately, 150 of the workers at the Flat Rock, MI plant will need to relocate to other plants within the company. Even so, Ford is confident the workers will accept jobs at other nearby plants, which will result in no job losses for the Ford team.
A Timely Decision by Ford
Two days prior to the announcement that Ford will find jobs for all affected employees, GM announced the closure of five plants in North America, which will result in the loss of 15,000 jobs. This is the answer by GM to the slumping desire for traditional passenger cars. This move by GM has drawn the ire of the President, who has now threatened to eliminate subsidies for GM from the government. It seems that GM has an important decision to consider and may want to take a page from the Ford book or move more production back into the US.
Increased Sales for Ford Show the Right Results
During the first ten months of this year, the Ford Expedition has grown four percent and the Lincoln Navigator has risen in sales by nearly 81 percent during the same time period. As you would expect, the Ford F-Series pickup trucks have continued to be in high demand for the entire time. Ford has found a way to make the vehicles they need to and move toward more models that offer higher profits; GM is going to need to make similar changes or face the music with the North American consumers.
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