Kentucky250s Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 FoMoCo Louisville Assembly Plant « Laid-off Ford workers have a cushion » Welcome Guest. Please Login or Register. Mar 10, 2008, 9:41am FoMoCo Louisville Assembly Plant :: FORD NEWS :: Ford Motor Company & Auto related news :: Laid-off Ford workers have a cushion Author Topic: Laid-off Ford workers have a cushion (Read 58 times) dogg PAINTER member is offline Joined: Nov 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 132 Karma: 0 Laid-off Ford workers have a cushion « Thread Started on Today at 5:52am » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ford workers have a cushion Contract can soften the pain of layoffs By Jere Downs jdowns@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal As United Auto Workers in Louisville confront Ford Motor Co.'s first layoffs in almost three decades, their new contract deflects the blow. After losing their jobs and exhausting unemployment benefits, workers can still pocket 95 percent to 100 percent of pay and benefits for 21/2 years. If a Ford job becomes available after that, laid-off workers get first dibs for as long as they worked for the company. Unlike new hires who will be paid half as much, laid-off workers return at their old pay of about $60,000 a year. Electrician Troy Teno, who joined Ford in 2001, knows he will likely get the ax this summer. But Teno and the rest of the 1,000-person night shift being eliminated this year can afford to ignore Ford's lucrative buyout offers. "You would have to give me half a million dollars to buy out my call-back rights," Teno, 38, said. "These are still the best jobs in the city." The new contract has a hitch. During the three-year period, laid-off workers lose pay and benefits if they turn down two job offers from Ford. If Ford lays off the forecasted 800 workers, the cuts could reach as far back as people hired at the Louisville Assembly Plant in 1994, according to its seniority list. Still, few are taking buyout packages that range from $50,000 to $140,000. As of last week, only 147 had signed up to leave voluntarily from the assembly plant or the Kentucky Truck Plant. "Most of the interest comes from people who are going to retire," said Adam Abell, a UAW Local 862 benefits representative at the truck plant. Ford needs them to go. Its ability to survive and deliver on the contract, including a promise to replace the Explorer at the assembly plant by 2011, depend in part on trimming labor costs. "We have got to get our entire cost structure down to a competitive level," Martin J. Mulloy, vice president for labor affairs, said Friday. "In the past, people have come to the automotive companies and stayed there for lifetime employment guarantees. We don't have that anymore." What is happening in Louisville offers an example of the dramatic shrinking of the once-mighty automaker as it attempts to rebound from losing $2.6 billion last year and compete with the likes of Toyota and Honda. After losing $12.7 billion in 2006, Ford employed 78,000 UAW members in North America. Last year, a wave of buyouts and plant closings slashed that to 54,000. In Louisville, 2,000 UAW members, or 25 percent of the work force at both plants, left their jobs. Clear-cutting continues New buyouts aim at 12,000 more UAW members eligible for retirement nationwide, chief financial officer Don Leclair said in January. "We need those openings," Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said Thursday. "We have employees at plants being affected by our downsizing that really want to have a future with Ford. In order for us to have openings that can accommodate them, we need to offer this round." Wiping surplus employees off the books also will make room at Ford for cheaper hires someday. The new contract allows it to sign up 20 percent of its employees at half the going rate of $28 to $30 an hour. Unless more take buyouts, the days of filling slots with such "entry-level wage" employees seem far off. "Just how many people end up in entry-level wage depends on how many people sign up" for buyouts, Leclair said. 1987 security agreement The guarantee of wages even during a layoff dates to the 1987 labor agreement. In contract talks then, automakers demanded the UAW relinquish a decades-long tradition of 6 percent to 7 percent annual raises. The UAW reluctantly agreed to 3 percent annual increases to account for inflation. But the union also persuaded automakers to use the savings to establish the Jobs Bank as a hedge against layoffs, said Richard Block, a professor of Labor Relations at Michigan State University. Company officials agreed, Block said, because a downsizing at Ford was inconceivable back then. "The UAW traded half their wage increases for an employment security insurance policy," Block said. "Now the policy they bought all these years is starting to pay off." Limits on protection Provisions in the new contract limit wage and benefit protection. For the first time, the contract allows Ford to cut workers when sales drop, like those of the Explorer, whose popularity has declined as gas prices have risen. In contrast, the contract that just expired paid laid-off workers their salaries and benefits indefinitely. The 600 workers now in Ford's Job Bank are subject to the new deadlines and restrictions. After exhausting 26 weeks of unemployment, workers receive 95 percent of their pay up to 48 total weeks. Then they enter "protective status" for two years and have two choices. Ford can pay them 100 percent of their wages and benefits to report to the plant for community service jobs or other work. Or they can take home 85 percent of that and do nothing. If laid-off workers reject two job offers, they lose all compensation. For the length of time employees worked at Ford, they retain call-back rights and must be hired before Ford can offer the job to a newcomer. Workers called back from "inactive status" return at their former pay rate, Abell said. If not this summer, workers at the assembly plant know they will be laid off when it shuts its door for months of retooling to make the new vehicle. Just how many people Ford will let go this year won't be known until after March 18, the deadline by which workers must apply for a buyout. Opened in 1955 in part to manufacture the ill-fated Edsel, the assembly plant requires significant investment to build something besides Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Sport Trac vehicles. Chicago's experience Should Ford prosper again, a recent retooling of the Chicago Assembly Plant offers a glimpse of what the future may hold. In 2003, Ford Motor Co. ended Taurus production at the plant for an $800 million makeover. The plant reopened in 2004 with a new flexible body shop to crank out the Ford Five Hundred, the Ford Freestyle van and the Mercury Montego, all models discontinued last year. Now the plant makes the new Taurus, Taurus X and Mercury Sable. At the time, Ford said it is committed to transforming 75 percent of its plants into such flexible facilities, such at its factories at the time in Norfolk, Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; and the Dearborn Truck Plant. But even with a flexible body shop manufacturing the F-150 truck, Norfolk closed last year, a victim of Ford's dramatic downturn. The new contract allows workers to ride out such uncertainty. UAW Local 862 President Rocky Comito does not blame them. Comito represents Ford's Louisville workers. Comito was laid off in April 1980 from the assembly plant under contract terms far less generous. He said he only received three weeks of extra pay to supplement unemployment benefits. But he had call-back rights for 6 1/2 years, which is how long he had worked for Ford. Eighteen months went by before Ford asked him to return. Workers are protected now only through a contract UAW leadership has fought hard for, he said. "Overall, depending on the situation," Comito said, the contract "is pretty darn good." Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669 Link to Post - Back to Top Logged Forum Jump--------------------» Home--------------------» FORD NEWS--------------------- Ford Motor Company & Auto related news--------------------» FORD GOSSIP--------------------- LAP/FoMoCo RUMOR MILL--------------------» POSTS BY THE DEMENTED--------------------- POSTS BY THE DEMENTED--------------------» Everything Else--------------------- EVERYTHING ELSE- SELL YOUR ITEMS- SERVICES OFFERED- LOCAL BUSINESSES THAT EITHER SUPPORT OR DON'T SUPPORT FORD- Share your favorite websites Web scottrlap.proboards75.com Click Here To Make This Board Ad-Free This Board Hosted For FREE By ProBoards Get Your Own Free Message Board! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hard-Drivin' Man Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 FoMoCo Louisville Assembly Plant Mar 10, 2008, 9:41am FoMoCo Louisville Assembly Plant :: FORD NEWS :: Ford Motor Company & Auto related news :: Laid-off Ford workers have a cushion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ford workers have a cushion Contract can soften the pain of layoffs By Jere Downs jdowns@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal As United Auto Workers in Louisville confront Ford Motor Co.'s first layoffs in almost three decades, their new contract deflects the blow. After losing their jobs and exhausting unemployment benefits, workers can still pocket 95 percent to 100 percent of pay and benefits for 21/2 years. If a Ford job becomes available after that, laid-off workers get first dibs for as long as they worked for the company. Unlike new hires who will be paid half as much, laid-off workers return at their old pay of about $60,000 a year. Electrician Troy Teno, who joined Ford in 2001, knows he will likely get the ax this summer. But Teno and the rest of the 1,000-person night shift being eliminated this year can afford to ignore Ford's lucrative buyout offers. "You would have to give me half a million dollars to buy out my call-back rights," Teno, 38, said. "These are still the best jobs in the city." The new contract has a hitch. During the three-year period, laid-off workers lose pay and benefits if they turn down two job offers from Ford. If Ford lays off the forecasted 800 workers, the cuts could reach as far back as people hired at the Louisville Assembly Plant in 1994, according to its seniority list. Still, few are taking buyout packages that range from $50,000 to $140,000. As of last week, only 147 had signed up to leave voluntarily from the assembly plant or the Kentucky Truck Plant. "Most of the interest comes from people who are going to retire," said Adam Abell, a UAW Local 862 benefits representative at the truck plant. Ford needs them to go. "Just how many people end up in entry-level wage depends on how many people sign up" for buyouts, Leclair said. 1987 security agreement The guarantee of wages even during a layoff dates to the 1987 labor agreement. In contract talks then, automakers demanded the UAW relinquish a decades-long tradition of 6 percent to 7 percent annual raises. The UAW reluctantly agreed to 3 percent annual increases to account for inflation. But the union also persuaded automakers to use the savings to establish the Jobs Bank as a hedge against layoffs, said Richard Block, a professor of Labor Relations at Michigan State University. Company officials agreed, Block said, because a downsizing at Ford was inconceivable back then. "The UAW traded half their wage increases for an employment security insurance policy," Block said. "Now the policy they bought all these years is starting to pay off." Limits on protection Provisions in the new contract limit wage and benefit protection. For the first time, the contract allows Ford to cut workers when sales drop, like those of the Explorer, whose popularity has declined as gas prices have risen. In contrast, the contract that just expired paid laid-off workers their salaries and benefits indefinitely. The 600 workers now in Ford's Job Bank are subject to the new deadlines and restrictions. After exhausting 26 weeks of unemployment, workers receive 95 percent of their pay up to 48 total weeks. Then they enter "protective status" for two years and have two choices. Ford can pay them 100 percent of their wages and benefits to report to the plant for community service jobs or other work. Or they can take home 85 percent of that and do nothing. If laid-off workers reject two job offers, they lose all compensation. For the length of time employees worked at Ford, they retain call-back rights and must be hired before Ford can offer the job to a newcomer. Workers called back from "inactive status" return at their former pay rate, Abell said. If not this summer, workers at the assembly plant know they will be laid off when it shuts its door for months of retooling to make the new vehicle. Just how many people Ford will let go this year won't be known until after March 18, the deadline by which workers must apply for a buyout. But even with a flexible body shop manufacturing the F-150 truck, Norfolk closed last year, a victim of Ford's dramatic downturn. The new contract allows workers to ride out such uncertainty. UAW Local 862 President Rocky Comito does not blame them. Comito represents Ford's Louisville workers. Comito was laid off in April 1980 from the assembly plant under contract terms far less generous. He said he only received three weeks of extra pay to supplement unemployment benefits. But he had call-back rights for 6 1/2 years, which is how long he had worked for Ford. Eighteen months went by before Ford asked him to return. Workers are protected now only through a contract UAW leadership has fought hard for, he said. "Overall, depending on the situation," Comito said, the contract "is pretty darn good." Reporter Jere Downs can be reached at (502) 582-4669 [quote]Okay, so based on this info, what do you think the chances are for someone with say, 20 years seniority, to ride out this layoff for an extended period of time. By that I mean, if one is placed into the JSP, what are the chances of staying there for at least 2 years, and then accepting a job offer at whatever Ford plant is offered? Or, do you see Ford making 2 job offers within a relatively quick period of time? It's hard to say without knowing the exact buyout numbers, but does anyone have a guess as to how this might play out for someone with 20 years seniority? 10 years? Etc? Obviously, you'd have call-back rights for as long as you've got service credits, but what if Ford got say, 3,000 buyouts this time, but didn't want to offer another round - What would that do to the people in JSP?[/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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