Ford Plan - Cut 30,000 Workers

DETROIT, Jan 23, 2006; Reuters reported that Ford Motor Co. said it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs in North America and idle 14 manufacturing facilities through 2012, hoping to turn around the money-losing unit.

The sweeping restructuring plan also calls for reducing capacity by 1.2 million units, or 26 percent, by 2008, and targets a material cost reduction of at least $6 billion by 2010.

The job cuts, in addition to the previously announced slashing of 4,000 salaried positions and a 12 percent cut in officer ranks by the end of the first quarter in the first quarter of 2006, are the deepest since since Ford launched a multiyear restructuring program in 2002.

Ford expects a pretax financial impact of $250 million for hourly personnel separations and $220 million for fixed asset write-offs in 2006.

"Our cost structure will improve as we progress through 2006 and increasingly thereafter, and we'll return to profitability in our North American automotive business no later than 2008," Don Leclair, Ford's chief financial officer, said in a statement.

Ford also said it expects capital expenditures of about $7 billion in 2006 and a year-end cash balance of more than $20 billion.