Ford cuts 10,000 more salaried jobs, shuts down 2 plants

DETROIT — Ford is cutting more than 10,000 additional salaried jobs, offering buyouts to all of its 75,000 U.S. hourly workers and shutting down two more plants in a plan to end financial losses and remake itself into a smaller, more competitive car company.

The announcement from Ford came as Chrysler's parent said it would cut U.S. production through end of 2006 and follows big cutbacks at General Motors earlier this year. The cuts are all due to consumers shifting from trucks and sport utility vehicles to smaller, more fuel efficient cars and crossovers, many made by Asian automakers.

The blue-collar cuts at Ford are another blow to organized labor which has been losing members as the auto industry reshapes itself amid fierce competition from lower-cost, non-union rivals.

But Wall Street didn't seem to be impressed with the long-awaited acceleration of the Ford restructuring plan. Ford shares tumbled nearly 10 percent by midmorning.

Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would shutter a stamping plant in Maumee, Ohio, in 2008 and its Essex engine plant in Windsor, Ontario, in 2007. That is in addition to previous plans for 14 plant closures.

It will also close an assembly plant in Norfolk, Va., in 2007, a year earlier than previously announced and will cut a shift in January. An assembly plant in St. Paul, Minn., which is scheduled to close in 2008, also will have a shift reduction in 2007.

Ford said it would complete its cuts of about 30,000 hourly jobs by the end of the 2008, four years ahead of its previous target. Ford also said it already had cut 4,000 salaried positions in the first quarter of this year.

The new cuts would reduce Ford's total North American work force by 29 percent, from the current level of about 130,000 to about 92,000 by the end of 2008. The salaried job cuts represent about a third of that work force.

Ford's method of slashing its work force is similar to cuts made earlier this year by larger rival General Motors Corp. At GM, 34,410 hourly workers have accepted buyouts or early retirement offers this year. Figures on white-collar cuts were not available.

Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler unit are struggling with the need to reduce their so-called "legacy costs" of big pay and benefits packages for workers and retirees to compete more effectively with foreign automakers.

DaimlerChrysler said Friday its Chrysler division will make additional production cuts in the third and fourth quarters to reduce dealer inventories.