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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ild who wrote (1180)	10/1/2003 1:54:00 PM
From: russwinter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Ford set to cut more than 12,000 jobs By Jeremy Grant in Chicago and James Mackintosh in London Published: October 1 2003 0:21 Financial Times Ford Motor Company is set to cut more than 12,000 jobs worldwide, mostly in the US, after persuading labour unions to agree to the closure or sale of four assembly and component plants. The moves come as the Detroit "big three" carmakers are receiving ratification from labour unions of new three-year labour contacts, which include plant closures and jobs losses. Chrysler, the US unit of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, is also preparing cuts in salaried staff, the latest round of job losses at the troubled subsidiary where 30,000 workers have left in the past two years under an $8.1bn restructuring plan. Under a $9bn restructuring unveiled in January last year, Ford said it wanted to close five plants in North America. One of those, in Canada, was saved earlier this year under a separate deal with labour unions, leaving four. Last month, however, the state of Missouri stepped in with an offer of $9m aid which has secured the future of one, the St Louis plant that makes the best-selling Explorer sport utility vehicle. Under the labour agreement ratified by the United Autoworkers union on Tuesday, the union has agreed to let Ford close or sell four plants, suggesting the unions have agreed to the disposal of an extra plant, ensuring the total number affected remains at four. Ford declined to comment on Tuesday. However, in addition to the roughly 4,600 jobs at the four plants, Ford said it would cut 3,000 salaried positions in North America, which comes on top of 1,700 job cuts in Germany, announced earlier this week. On Wednesday, Lewis Booth, European chief executive, also confirmed that plans to invest €900m ($1.1bn) into Ford's Genk factory in Belgium had been stalled as the factory was cutting 3,000 job. Taken together, these moves imply a total reduction in the global workforce of more than 12,000. Ford and Chrysler, which like General Motors are struggling with a fierce price war and Japanese and Korean competition, are trying to improve productivity and cut costs. The ratification by the UAW of the Ford contract paves the way for the closure or sale of two US assembly plants and two US component plants. Chrysler's latest plan is to eliminate what one insider said would be a few thousand skilled posts in its US factories. It has set up a joint taskforce with the UAW aiming to improve the competitiveness of its plants, the least productive among the north American carmakers. The job losses will be among the 12,000 highly-paid support staff such as electricians and die-makers, who are salaried but covered by union agreements. The company refused to comment on the numbers

To: ild who wrote (1180)	10/1/2003 1:55:09 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

got a new sign out a block down the street from where I work -- advertises home equity loans -- 1.9% On another local note -- appears that the crew locally that had a ponzi scheme which supposedly repackaged car loans and resold them to the public -- the principals ARE going on trial for securities fraud. Didn't think it was gonna happen ... my Dad got out of these "CD" like investments just in time - 3 years ago -- at the time they were yielding 3-4% better than a real CD. Folks that were in them when the outfit went belly-up -- got about .03 on the dollar in new equity