OS cutbacks continue

CHRYSLER and Ford moved to prune thousands of hourly workers with “buyouts” from their plants across the US last week, negotiating with unions and offering buyouts and retirement packages as vehicle production is scaled back to meet lower demand.

Overseas reports indicate that Chrysler LLC offered buyouts to 2500 UAW-represented hourly workers in Detroit, while Reuters reported that Ford has told the UAW that it wants to shed around 4000 more hourly workers because of poor sales.

The Blue Oval brand shed 4200 jobs earlier this year, leaving around 60,000 hourly workers on the payroll – down from 100,000 three years ago.

Nissan North America also said last week that its offer to buy out 1200 workers at two plants in Tennessee had proven popular, although it refused to provide exact numbers.

Elsewhere, Ford of Canada said it planned to cut 500 jobs at its plant in Oakville, Ontario, while Ford-owned Volvo Cars revealed that it would cut an additional 900 jobs in Sweden next year on top of the 2000 redundancies it announced in June.

In France, strike action against Renault is anticipated as the French manufacturer last week pushed ahead with its plan to cut thousands of jobs in France and elsewhere in Europe.

A “voluntary departure plan” being thrashed out with unions last week set a target of 3000 staff not directly linked to production, and 1000 workers at its Sandouville plant, which builds the recently launched Laguna.

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