U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Co. plans further cuts in its factory workforce, a company spokeswoman said Monday.
The company is to offer incentive packages to 41,000 of its workers, offering payouts of up to $75,000, for them to quit their jobs. Ford still has an overhang of workers and the company was cooperating with the United Auto Workers union to solve the issue, Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said.
She declined to detail the full scale of the planned cuts. The offer was valid until Jan. 22, she said. Last month, Ford staff rejected an austerity package negotiated between the carmaker’s management and the union. Ford already once this year offered golden handshakes to its blue-collar workers, but only 1,000 workers took up the offer.
Ford, although better off than other U.S. carmakers, has been hit hard by the global slump in car sales. Through November, its sales were down 19 per cent compared with the same period last year.
As of October, Ford had about 80,000 employees in North America, down from 89,000 at the beginning of the year.
