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Ford To Cut North America, Asia Salaried Workers By 10 Percent (reuters.com)
Ford is planning a major round of layoffs that will cut up to 20,000 jobs around the world, according to reports published Monday. From a report: Ford plans to shrink its salaried workforce in North America and Asia by about 10 percent as it works to boost profits and its sliding stock price, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters. A person briefed on the plan said Ford plans to offer generous early retirement incentives to reduce its salaried headcount by Oct. 1, but does not plan cuts to its hourly workforce or its production. The move could put the U.S. automaker on a collision course with President Donald Trump, who has made boosting auto employment a top priority. Ford has about 30,000 salaried workers in the United States. The cuts are part of a previously announced plan to slash costs by $3 billion, the person said, as U.S. new vehicles auto sales have shown signs of decline after seven years of consecutive growth since the end of the Great Recession.
If they want to avoid the ire of our President when they only lay off Americans. It sounds like I'm joking but I'm not - this is the type of perverse unintended consequences that government intervention brings.
Because the companies that followed that model all went out of business. The ones that are left are the ones that were willing to make the hard decisions to increase the value to the owners.
Because consumers have to pay the wages. Auto makers have to hold onto employees well-beyond their usefulness because of union contracts, and you have to pay the charity that keeps those people benched instead of out working other jobs making stuff you're buying with the money you're not spending on cars.
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Not every business is able to "build better products to increase profits". A lot of things are out of one individual business' control. For instance, the overall health of the economy has a huge impact on consumer spending. And things like government trade policy are, for the most part, out of the control of Ford.
Companies that are able to weather such changes are ones who are willing to cut workforce when the going gets tough and hire when the going is good.
Companies that stick to a myopic "gotta take care of every employee" went out of business long ago. Even during the Great Depression, Ford laid people off. Of course, the ones he kept around, he took care of because he knew things would get better and he's better off having loyal employees.
So. Become a shareholder (along with millions of other people who, like you know better) and then have a say in how the company works.
One million people like you who put in a dollar a day into such a great fund could do wonders. You could change the world. You could be the change you're looking for.
Carpe Diem muthaf**ker.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
"The hard decisions to increase value to owners" is more often than not increasing short-term gains at the expense of the company's long-term future. Look at the current slow disintegration of Sears/KMart as it's being slowly gutted instead of finding new ways of making long-term profits or keeping Americans employed. Granted, brick-and-mortar has seen its day, but the really important decisions would be the ones that steered them towards newer growth, not shambling like a zombie until finally all the bits have rotted off and the whole thing collapses forever.
It might be remembered that incorporation is not some sort of inalienable right. Corporate charters are granted by governments, and governments themselves are not supposed to be money-making entities, but rather for the profit of their citizens in many ways, not all of them recordable in dollars and cents. At the moment, a corporate charter can be granted for virtually any legal activity, profit-making or not, but when corporations begin to act to the detriment of their grantors, perhaps it might be advisable to re-think the chartering process.
When you can get a charter that allows you to employ people at rates that make them a drain on your own resources - for example, Wal-Mart's Welfare Employees - or the many cases where a company demands major tax concessions, then outsources, then perhaps the charter should be re-considered.
Don't worry, they'll all get jobs as game developers and social media apprentices.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Isn't there a general auto slump? There was pent up post-recession demand, but now things are settling back to normal demand. Other car makers are cutting also.
Table-ized A.I.
Well, maybe the answer is to stop pretending that companies can - or should - 'take care' of their employees any more. A good start would be to adopt universal health and unemployment insurance, so that companies aren't dragged down by a government expectation that they will provide those things - when their foreign competitors can rely on their governments to provide them. Of course that ignores your bit about loyal employees - which are certainly worth something...
Still, if you're 'pro business' in this country you're also expected to be 'anti government'. The two don't add up. The best way to have a strong middle class is to have good, well-paying jobs and secure benefits. And the best way to have healthy companies is to have a strong middle class to buy their products. But in this country at this time, we have the worst of both. And a weak middle class produces a viscous circle of need for government safety net programs to deal with the carnage.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
You mean like the C-Max Energi, the Focus Electric and the Fusion Hybrid?
If you really believe that the secret to success is having lots of employees and paying them well, then you should be able to get rich by starting such a business. Or you can invest in companies that do that, while shorting companies that focus on automation, streamlining and outsourcing. Good luck. So far the evidence is not on your side.
Your "short term" vs "long term" argument is also not backed by evidence. Walmart has been lean and paid low wages for 55 years. They aren't bankrupt yet. Meanwhile, plenty of companies that procrastinated at cutting the bloat are dead and gone.
Ford is smart to try to be more like Toyota and less like GM.
Yep, combined with the glut of used cars after the dearth of them from that pile of shite that was Cash for Clunkers. Since people bought many more new cars than normals and/or leased them, the amount of used cars currently on the market in decent shape is higher than it would otherwise have been.
A good start would be to adopt universal health and unemployment insurance, so that companies aren't dragged down by a government expectation that they will provide those things
Businesses have to pay for for it one way or another. If the government provides it, then it will be cheaper overall, but will still be paid for out of taxation. That means either taxes directly on the business, or taxes it indirectly has to pay through higher wages etc.
Businesses need to stop thinking about tax as something to dodge at all cost, and start working with government to make sure that they get what they need in return, i.e. educated, healthy workers and infrastructure.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC