Motors – Job cuts from Ford
WORKERS, MAR 2006 ISSUE
Ford has announced job cuts of 30,000 and the closure of 14 plants in the USA. This is a 27% reduction in production. Ford posted a profit, but only from subsidiaries and non-manufacturing sources. Chrysler, recently bought by the German firm Daimler, is to cut 6,000 jobs. General Motors posted an $8.6 billion loss.
While the US "Big 3" teeter, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai are increasing their production and building a greater market share in the US. If Ford and Chrysler are rocky in the USA then their British factories will also be under threat.
The musical chairs of moving products from one production line to another can only continue for a finite period of time. If the US parent companies are withdrawing from manufacture, how long before the closure of the British operations? Is Dagenham in East London worth more for its acreage and housing potential as part of the Thames Gateway redevelopment than as a centre of engineering excellence?