How do you feel about the Ford Motor Comp.,cutting jobs and shutting down plants?

Answer 1

It sucks.

I'm a GM man through and through, but I'm a believer that healthy competition is best for all concerned. None of them Big 3 seem to be fairing well these days, or so they say.

It's tough to support a domestic brand that closes down plants, throws your neighbours and friends out of work, and devastates local economies, because a few greedy types at the top want bigger numbers on that bottom line.

I'm totally against moving production overseas, but that seems to be the way the domestic companies are going. It's just one of many union-busting tricks up their sleeves.

I'm also in favour of domestic production because of my job. I'm a railroader, and we move a LOT of product for the auto companies, from raw materials, to parts, to finished products. It's in my best interest that the domestic manufacturing landscape is a healthy one.

Answer 2

Hi,
I'm guessing that you or yours have an upcoming prob. with the Ford people, and fair enough.
I don't suppose Henry Ford saw all that coming, but such is the nature of global vehicle manufacture nowadays.
Competition, is the answer. If I can sell you a pint of perfectly fine milk for half the price of the local supermarket. Well say no more.
I do appreciate however the brilliant bits of Brit. skills and talent that have gone into our car manufacturing, andperhaps I'm getting a tad old (50), but my 1st car was an Austin A35. Lovely thing.The mini is BMW, the proper Roller just isn't, Lotus are OK, but use American Ford engines, and so on.
Had 4 Fords, a Mk.3 Orange Cortina, two succesive White Capri's
And an old military thing that defies description.
All excellent things, and darn well made.
So, you ask how I feel about the job cuts & shutdowns etc ?
Well, I'm not in the car manufacture business, but being a Brit. engineer, I feel that cutting back on such important investment in our lovely engineering skills is a short-term potential disaster.
So you have my full support.
All the best,
Bob the Boat

Answer 3

I call it an "adjustment". Ford had to get into the 21st century someday.
But don't feel bad for the workers! They're getting a GREAT deal as far as laid off workers go. Severance is $35k to $140k for taking the package, WOW! That's a lot of money! And they can get a new job right away, so that's all gravy, even after taxes.

The US had market dominance in the world for a long time; it might not last forever. But accepting reality and setting the work force straight could help.

Answer 4

I think it will hurt all of us in the long run.
For many years now Ford like Gm and Chrysler has designed, built, and sold soem of the sorriest cars made.
Ex. MY last two ford vans before I broke down and brought a Toyota were an aristar, and a wind star. The wind star cost me about 4000 dollars in 5 years in parts and service(most of which it evidently did not need as they never solved the problem). I could not find machanics who wanted to work on it outside the ford dealer who acted like the mob. The engine was hard to reach, and no one understood how the dam thing worked or could work on it, not even ford machanics. It was trash from day one with no recourse, and not I find that every car built in that model was bad, with no recalls. The 1800- number for problems you could not get the dealer to repair sent me to sites which sold machanic books:). This was just one example of nearly every automobile ford made which are a major factor in their decline world wide.There are several factors involved in fords decline.downfall.
1-The engineering of the automobiles sucks as does Gms.
2-The labour involved in manufacturing the cars were so screwed up by the unions, drugs, alcohol ect . that It wa sno wonder the old saying about american cars rang true.>(never buy a car made on monday or tuesday as they are all gettingoiver a drunk or drugs, never buy one on friday as it is the last day of the week and the assembly line employees don';t care how they build and only have their minds on the weekend)> It is a fact that cars made monday, tuesday or friday are the worst , always in america.
3- The management for allowing it to go on so long.
4- The decision to use inferior parts, and charge high prices for service by the dealers.
5- ford dealerships have done more to distroy their company by over charging, lieing about them and their service, and outright sorry service at inflated prices.
If Ihad a brother in jail and a brother in a ford I opwuld go get my brother out of that ford.
It's a miserably shame what the company exs, employees, unions, and dealers have done to both ford and Gm. as well as chysler.




I also think the blame can be shared with;

management for allowinf it to continue so long

Answer 5

It's been a long time coming.

Industry in this country has changed from that of manufacturing to service.

My parents worked for GM for more than 30 years. Secure jobs like that are gone, probably for good. I blame unions to a large degree. While they were and sometimes are essential to protect basic rights and workers' lives, I saw first hand how they crippled the coroprations to lose out to the foreign market.

My mother was a janitor who made over $50,000 a year when she retired in 1999, for working at most 2 hours a night. When she finished her job, she would just avoid her boss to avoid getting more work. Her actions weren't uncommon. Her health plan, amount of vacation time, and all the other benefits she got are amazing. I graduated magna *** laude with a B.A. in communications and have maxed out at half that.

Answer 6

Ford's paying the price for some of it's executives' decisions on issue more than just automotive, and I'm glad of it, even though I can say I own a VERY NICE F-350 TurboDiesel, Crew Cab, 4-wheel drive pick up truck of theirs that was the most expensive vehicle on the dealer's lot, according to the salesman. God Bless you.

Answer 7

What's to feel? Ford is in line with GM...Management was irresponsible in what they've sold Americans for the last two decades - hell, their first hybrid was an SUV. The unions are just as guilty for not pursuing policies that might have strengthened themselves and the country as a whole (i.e. national health insurance).

Answer 8

People should probably be made aware that Ford owns about 1/3 of Mazda and all of Volvo.

Also, many Mazda and Volvo cars are made in the USA.

Answer 9

Its a shame that the american buying public want to buy nothing but foreign cars, they are brainwashed that foreign cars are better, it was the truth in the 70's but not anymore, look at the recent statistics, Toyota and Honda are #1 and # 2 on recalls, I can't speak for Ford but GM has come a long way on quality and last weeks announcement of them extending their warranties to 5 yrs. 100,000 mi. warranties show that the quality of their cars speak for itself.

Answer 10

Sad. Globalization does that to you when Mazda and Volvo are more successful selling their cars than you are.

Ford is going private and will probably have to spin off everything they acquired in the past to stay out of bankruptcy court.