Ford "Temporarily" Idles Nine Plants

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

WardsAuto.com reports that Ford is following up on its pledge to cut fourth quarter production by, wait for it, 211k units. That’s a 35 percent drop from year-ago manufacturing levels. To implement the cuts, FoMoCo is “temporarily” idling nine plants:Louisville, KY; St. Paul, MN; Oakville and St. Thomas, ON, Canada; Kansas City, MO; Avon Lake, OH; Flat Rock and Wayne, MI; and Hermosillo, Mexico. In terms of the who what when where and for how long and how much longer than normal, and whether or not people are getting paid to work (jobs bank-wise), Ford spokesfolk Angie Kozleski was slightly… vague. “In terms of down weeks, some may have been scheduled and some are new,” says Kozleski. “But we’ll continue to adjust production capacity to demand.” True enough, but it’s not the most reassuring thing a spinmeister has ever said.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Droid800 Droid800 on Nov 17, 2008

    You can try and spin this as a negative, but really, this is Ford being smart and not flooding its dealers with models that aren't selling quickly. Its better that they do this instead of over-producing and having thousands and thousands of extra units just sitting on dealer lots like Chrysler and GM. @Your old pal Bob : They won't be americanized. Everything in the Euro Fiesta is coming here, from the seats to the tail pipe. They're not screwing them up like they have done so often in the past.

  • Benders Benders on Nov 17, 2008

    Droid: I believe the front end of the Fiesta (and most if not all the Euro Fords) has to be reworked structurally to meet the tougher US frontal crash test standards. Could be wrong though. More evidence Ford is the most observant of the Detroit automakers and is (GASP!) cutting production to adjust to demand levels.

  • Droid800 Droid800 on Nov 18, 2008

    @benders Nope. NCAP standards are actually more stringent now than NHTSA's, and this car was engineered from the very start to be able to be sold worldwide so that Ford didn't have to make costly changes for different markets.

  • Geotpf Geotpf on Nov 18, 2008

    As for whether or not these folks are in the "jobs bank", my understanding is when layoffs occur, the employees go on government unemployment benefits first, and only after that runs out, do they go into the "jobs bank". This type of temporary layoffs usually don't last long enough for the employees to run out of unemployment benefits, assuming they are truely temporary. So, yes, they will be paid not to work, but the government is paying them, not Ford (or the government via a bailout paid to Ford, natch).

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