At GM, the cuts brought withering criticism
from President Donald Trump and Congress,
especially the closing of a small-car factory
in Lordstown, Ohio. Trump campaigned on
bringing factory jobs back to the industrial
Midwest. GM has since announced a
possible deal to sell the Lordstown plant to
a startup electric vehicle maker, but it hasn’t
been finalized.
Ford’s white-collar employees had been fearful
since last July when the company said the
restructuring would cost $7 billion in cash and
hit pretax earnings by $11 billion over the next
three to five years. Many have been upset that it
took so long for the company to make decisions.
Factory workers have not been affected by
the restructuring thus far, as the company has
retooled car plants so they can build more
popular trucks and SUVs.
The layoffs, while large, weren’t as bad as many
had expected. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam
Jonas predicted 25,000 white-collar job cuts late
last year, a number that Ford would not deny.
Back in March, Hackett had told employees
that Ford had added too many workers after
the Great Recession, going from 160,000
worldwide in 2009 back to about 200,000 as the
economy improved. While Ford was growing, its
revenue growth didn’t justify adding that many
employees, he explained.
In Monday’s memo, Hackett said that Ford is
departing from past practices and letting laid-
off employees stay a few days to wrap up their
jobs and say good-bye to colleagues. In the past,
laid-off workers would have had to pack up and
leave immediately.