The restructuring plan that Ford Motors will announce next month as it moves to restore its North American operations to profitability will be more aggressive than many analysts had expected, the Detroit News reported today.
Citing people familiar with the plan, the newspaper said the car maker will cut up to 30,000 hourly jobs in North America within five years and close at least 10 assembly and component plants.
Ford chairman and chief executive Bill Ford has said the plan would include "significant plant closings" but has declined to elaborate.
The extent of the restructuring has been the subject of widespread speculation, Ford's board is expected to review parts of the restructuring plan during a two-day meeting beginning today, Mark Fields, the executive vice president in charge of Ford's Americas operations - who is drafting the company's turnaround strategy along with Anne Stevens, chief operating officer of Americas - told employees on Friday in an e-mail that the restructuring plan had not yet been finalized.
But in addition to the plant closing and blue-collar layoffs, the Detroit News said the number two US car maker will announce the departure of up to seven top executives in the coming weeks.
Gerald Bantom, the United Auto Workers vice president in charge of the union's relations with Ford told reporters late on Tuesday the automaker's restructuring plan was expected to be unveiled on January 23rd.
Like its larger US rival General Motors, Ford has seen its margins squeezed by soaring health-care and raw material costs, and a decline in US market share.