Ford to Cut Spanish Workforce by 600

Ford, the only US giant who survived without government funding in the domestic market, wants to reduce workforce in Spain by around 600 employees. The company has already informed unions of its plans, but it's still unclear whether the decision will be applied or not. The job cut will affect the plant in Valencia and Ford hopes the layoffs will be voluntary, Reuters informed today citing Spanish newspapers.

Although Ford says the collapsing market makes this job cut a must, unions want to see all details and claim a 600-unit layoff is inappropriate despite the invoked reason, the source added.

The assembly plant in Valencia currently employs 6,000 people and manufactures both the Focus and the Fiesta. The plant has already reduced output earlier this year, but no job cut has been applied for the time being.

In the first half of 2009, Ford reported a drop of 16.3 percent or 163,700 units to 840,400 in its 51 European markets, including Russia and Turkey. Sales dropped by 90,200 or 11 percent to 733,000 in its 19 main European markets.

“While June was a more positive month, we're still a long way from a sustained and healthy market”, said Ford Europe's head of marketing, sales and service, Ingvar Sviggum.

The new Fiesta remained an attractive model for Ford's European markets as the company sold in the first half of 2009 more units than in 2008. Fiesta was launched in August 2008 in most European countries. In the UK Ford stays No. 1 and No. 2 on a global scale, managing sales of 36,000 units in June, down 1,200 compared to June 2008. Sales were up by 6,800 units to 30,800 in Germany, while in France sales rose by 600 units to 16,300.