Ford to Lay Off Salaried Workers

Ford Motor Co. will lay off an undisclosed number of salaried employees this summer and hopes to complete the reductions by August 1, a spokesman said Wednesday, May 28.

Earlier in the day, Detroit media reported that Ford will cut 10 percent to 12 percent of its salaried workforce, or more than 2,000 employees.

“We’re not going to comment on internal discussions we’re having with our employees,” Ford spokesman Mark Truby said. “As soon as we finalize some of these details, we’re going to tell our employees as quickly as we can.”

Because Ford wants the cuts made by August, the company doesn’t expect to offer voluntary packages, Truby said.

Last week, Ford abandoned its goal of returning to profitability by 2009 amid slumping U.S. light-truck sales. It also made sweeping production cuts, slashing output by 15 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter last year. Third- and fourth-quarter production will plunge as much as 20 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Ford said that by July it will have more details about how it plans to cut costs.

The automaker entered this year’s launch cycle with one-third third fewer salaried workers than it had earlier this decade.

Filed by Craig Trudell of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.