An offer by Ford Motor Co. to buy out its 6,200 Canadian workers could find takers in Windsor, Ont., according to the president of an auto workers’ union there.
Ken Lewenza, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers, said Ford is trying to ‘get rid of as many … existing employees’ as possible.(CBC)
There are about 1,000 Ford employees on layoff in Windsor. They’ll be joined by 400 to 500 more when Ford drops a shift at its Windsor engine plant in 2010, but could go back to work when Ford adds 250 jobs to its Essex engine plant at roughly the same time.
Those cuts leave workers “with much to think about,” said Mike Vince, president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 200, which represents Ford workers.
“Some people have made up their mind that they’re going to stay on the seniority list and not take it,” Vince said. “Hopefully, in a few years, they may be recalled.
“Others … have told us now that they want to take [the buyout package] and move on,” he said.
Ford trying to ‘get rid of’ workers: CAW
Ford is the healthiest of the Detroit Three automakers. Unlike Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors, it avoided government aid and bankruptcy protection earlier in the year.
But it says it still has more workers than it needs to produce cars and trucks at current sales levels.
On Monday, Ford offered buyouts, or retirement incentive packages, to its 41,000 hourly workers in the United States. It followed that on Tuesday with a similar offer to its Canadian workers.
“Their vision is to try to get rid of as many of the existing employees as they possibly can,” said Ken Lewenza, president of the CAW. It’s also a way to minimize the pain of the laid-off workers in Windsor, he said, by letting them “get on their with their lives.”
More buyout offers are expected when Ford closes its assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont. More than 1,500 workers are expected to lose their jobs when that happens, in September 2011.
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