Ford Offers More Buyouts to Hourly Workers

Ford Motor Co. offers its 41,000 United Auto Workers union workers the choice of two buyout packages in an effort to streamline a manufacturing system with a “surplus” of employees, a spokeswoman says.

One package is available to retirement-eligible workers with 30 or more years of service or those 55 or older with 10 or more years of services. Skilled-trade employees would receive $40,000, while others would get $20,000.

The second package is aimed at Ford workers with at least a year of service. They are eligible to receive a one-time payment of $50,000.

All employees are eligible for a $25,000 vehicle voucher or an additional $20,000.

“We began communicating with our hourly workforce at the end of last week about the offers,” says spokeswoman Marcey Evans, who declines to reveal Ford’s internal target for the hourly reductions.

Hourly workers will have until Jan. 22 to decide whether to accept a buyout. Those who do will begin leaving Feb. 1, with the majority departing by March 1, Evans says.

Since the auto maker began launching periodic buyout campaigns in 2005, roughly 34,000 hourly employees have left the company.