Ford News: Will Ford Cut 25,000 Jobs? The Answer Is Murky

[William Maley]

The holidays are proving to be a tough time for those who work in the automotive industry. Last week, General Motors announced that it would be cutting more than 10,000 jobs and removing products from five plants beginning next year. This could pale into comparison with what could happen with Ford.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas sent out a note to investors saying that Ford's $11 billion restructuring effort could see 25,000 jobs being cut.

“We estimate a large portion of Ford’s restructuring actions will be focused on Ford Europe, a business we currently value at negative $7 billion. But we also expect a significant restructuring effort in North America, involving significant numbers of both salaried and hourly UAW and CAW workers,” Jonas wrote.

Ford's 70,000 salaried employees have been told that job cuts are coming, but an official figure hasn't been revealed.

“These actions will come largely outside of North America. All of this work is ongoing and publishing a job-reduction figure at this point would be pure speculation,” said Ford spokeswoman Karen Hampton to Bloomberg.

But Ford CEO Jim Hackett has made things slightly worse. Yesterday, Hackett told reporters "Ford didn’t provide numbers to Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas." Basically a non-denial denial. The company is planning an interim announcement about its workforce later this week.

Source: Bloomberg, 2

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