Ford to present plan to cut up to 30,000 jobs

It will be ok Toyota, Honda and Nissan are adding jobs. Even if they create only 1 job for every 3 that they consume.

 

A sad period for Ford - I feel sorry for the employees who will be affected. What should have been the first step was to have revitalized the upper management. Of course, they won't be effected I'm sure...all cozy and warm in their positions.

 

I don't think that is Bill ford's plan, since his family still owns billions of dollars in stock.

 

Why do so G**damned many of these huge layoffs get announced---or leaked---just before Christmas? I know, I know, that's sappy of me, but I was "RIF"-fed from a GOVERNMENT job once in early Dec., and it really lets the air out of your family's balloon as well as your own.

Yes, malorn, I am as patriotic as you, in my own perverse, socialistic, non-militaristic, foolish way. My heart sinks a little when I see big American companies flush themselves down the toilet, and I know many other liberals feel the same, globalism be damned. I was raised on the near-absolute beliefs in American "ingenuity" and ability to overcome obstacles. At 64, I still get dis-illusioned.

Another dirty little admission: there's something I like about Bill Ford, even if I can say at the same time he's really painted into a corner and has no choice. But the bottom line is still that the United Auto Workers are going to have to back off on many of those $30-40/hr. jobs, and their asinine, petty, laziness-inducing "work rules". (And you're getting this from a "union guy".) Let them restructure on the "Saturn model " (which, in part, is the Japanese model ), with a "restructured" Auto Workers union. Like many of us (e.g., pilots), those people are their own worst enemies, and they're bringing American industry---certainly not just "management", who are even worse---to its knees.

We have no choice but to re-structure. Any Democrat worth his/her salt will stand up and say that, too. There's nothing wrong with the ORIGINAL union concept. But, like anything else that gets institutionalized, it gets encrusted and corrupted, because---simply---it's human nature for each new "leadership" of any institution to see if he/she can "bite off a little more", for ego reasons if nothing else.

There are ways we can learn from others, and emulate them. I'd start with the Japanese (which Saturn already did, before GM reined them in and fed them to the marketing bozos). Face it, as a whole, their work etchic is stronger. They're such compulsive savers of money, their government is on its umpteenth campaign to try to persuade its own citizens to loosen up and spend some damned money! "Labor" and "management" see themselves as having more interests in common than differences. Sure, their culture is different. Is it "worse"?

Here's an itty-bitty (relatively) island-ful of folks, with few or no natural resources except for their wits, eating the lunch of mighty Germany, mighty Russia, the mighty U.S. and---though this party's about to end---China. More power to 'em.

Now can we get serious about saving our own butts? Even liberal economist and NYT columnist Paul Krugman stresses that the U.S. is going to HAVE TO re-establish a manufacturing base. The "information economy" and "service economy" are being co-opted before our very eyes. There won't be enough damn jobs in those sectors in this very generation. What's the fastest-growing sector of our so-called economy? Health care! Hello? With our bass-ackwards health care system soon to end (yes, kids, national health care is coming, in one form or another), that growth will taper off, too, once the system is forced to adopt the same efficiency as the other sectors. But we're not even PREPARED for that yet! We NEED the "waste"!

We've got to back off this titillating "quarterly profits projection" merry-go-round, too. It mimics, more than anything, the mentality of professional sports, of all things! Throw a big, wet blanket over Nasdaq and the NYSE for, say, 15 years.

We can make great steel, great plastics, great cars, clothing, toys and electronics. But we'll have to re-tool, and re-invest WITHOUT the instant gratification of "record quarterly profits" for a while. Bush is putting wealth in the hands of the very people in a position to pull that off, like it or not.

But it's going to take some gutty politicians---I could care less what they call themselves---to describe the problems I'm talking about as they are, and stop pandering. We can live with a little less national "positive self-concept" for a while, while we re-learn how to earn it.

 

This is probably a horrible train of thought, but I'll eagerly await the price reduction on the F-150's...

h34r:

 

My feelings exactly.

 

Well, they could wait until just after New Years to tell you. After you've racked up some bills for the holidays.

Personally, if the company knows that there will be layoffs soon, I'd rather they tell me sooner rather than later so I can adjust my spending.

 

You are right in most of your post, a complete industrial restructuring needs to take place. I feel like the worm is begining to turn against the Japanese and the Chinese. If the average American can be educated about what is happening to this country and what the ramifications are the Japanese and Chinese will reach their economic zenith in the next five years. My guess is as soon is the ink is dry on our toyota acquisition, Toyota sales will begin to falter. Lately it seems that our business plan has been to buy high and sell low.

 

And that is something I don't want to see happen to you.

 

In case that you missed it, the Spring Hill, TN, Saturn plant is one of the many that are slated for closure by GM.

 

I didn't miss it. GM eats its own, the Donner party of carmakers. I just posted at some length on the Saturn experiment over on Rancid's new thread, and won't repeat it here. Saturn was, for its first seven years, the most "right" thing GM did in its last 25 years.

 

Except for this: "Bush is putting wealth in the hands of the very people in a position to pull that off, like it or not." I agree with everything in your post. You may even be right in this, but the operative phrase is "in a position" which is very different from "who will."

Anyway, as I've said before, it is sad when anyone gets laid off. Been there, and it's no fun, especially when your job goes across the border (as mine did).

Then again, with American car companies assembling cars in Mexico and Japanes companies assembling them in the USA, the whole American vs. Foreign distinction gets blurred, and it's only going to get blurrier.

Jan

 

You're right, of course, and though I doubt many will, time will tell. Maybe Carl Icahn has something constructive up his sleeve.

I keep looking at the Bush administration and what it's done through a prism, hoping that something I've scorned as a (-) might have a (+) side to it. This is clearly one. There are gobs of investible money out there, and much of it---again---is pouring into Silicon Valley again, under more restrained circumstances than the late 90's.

But the investors will want to see The Man With the Plan before anyone takes on manufacturing again.