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Ford Plans to Let Go Up to 850 Workers in the UK

Ford has just announced that it plans to cut around 850 jobs in the United Kingdom due to collapsing sales and decreasing demand, the main factors that pushed global automakers to similar decisions. Ford said it will rely on a “voluntary separation” but all selected employees must leave the company by the end of May. In addition, the company also intends to re-negotiate the initial 5.25 percent salary rise agree in November 2008, just-auto wrote, which led to criticism coming from the workers' union.

"Ford of Europe is implementing a number of cost reduction initiatives designed to protect its business and ensure it is well positioned to take full advantage of an eventual economic recovery. Declining customer demand for commercial vehicles has had a significant impact on Southampton Plant, which currently operates on less than four shifts a week to produce the required number of Ford Transits,” Ford said in a press statement according to the aforementioned source.

The 850 employee job cut represents nearly 7 percent of the total workforce the American automaker currently has in the United Kingdom and approximately half of the Southampton factory staff. The layoff will concern 350 workers employed by various plans across the country plus 400 to 500 production jobs at the Southampton Transit van plant.

“Continued non-production days with employees on basic pay are not affordable in the absence of a significant improvement in customer demand. To address this, the company will open a voluntary separation programme for salaried and hourly Southampton employees to bring manned capacity into line with customer demand, with between 400 and 500 employees leaving by May 2009.”

Obviously, the economic crisis is the main reason for such a massive job cut and even the American automaker repeatedly said it doesn't need financial support, it continues to apply various cost-cutting measures at sites around the world.

"Conserving cash is the single most important task confronting the company. In this difficult situation, the company has discussed with union representatives the need to re-evaluate the pay offer in the light of the present and continuing business conditions,” it said.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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