Ford May Extend Buyouts

Ford Motor Co. reportedly plans to offer buyout packages to all its North American United Auto Workers union workers.

Citing “two people with knowledge of the plan,” Bloomberg news service says in the wake of the auto maker’s 21% fourth-quarter production cutback, management has decided to expand the buyout program, which currently only is offered at specific plants.

Ford employed 82,000 UAW workers at the end of 2005, the report says.

An expanded buyout and attrition plan would follow the model successfully executed by General Motors Corp., which has helped the auto maker thin its UAW ranks by a third this year.