Is Ford offer to quit tempting enough?

For Rick McDonald, the biggest gamble of his young life comes down to whether he believes Ford Motor Co can turn itself around.

At age 38, the electrician at a transmission plant in the Detroit suburb of Livonia has to decide between staying and embedding his future with the wounded automaker or leaving under one of the buyout packages that Ford is offering as it tries to further pare its blue-collar work force.

"I bleed blue," McDonald said, referring to Ford's ubiquitous blue oval logo, which is among the assets the company has mortgaged to stay afloat. "I want to be here."

Yet departure is tempting. Ford is offering 10 buyout and early retirement packages to thin its hourly ranks. It wants to shrink factory capacity to match its lower market share.

The company also is hoping that enough people leave so it can replace them with workers who make about half the $28 per hour that Ford now pays factory workers in the United Auto Workers union. The deadline is March 18.

Depending on seniority, workers could get $50,000 to $140,000 to leave the company, which has made the offers to all 54,000 of its UAW hourly workers. Ford says it's the last time the buyouts will be offered at all US plants.

For younger workers like McDonald, there are options for education and for those who want to start businesses. Some come with health care for five or seven years.

McDonald grew up and now lives "Downriver", Detroit shorthand for a hodgepodge of blue-collar suburbs stacked against the Detroit River as it flows south from downtown into Lake Erie. Because of family ties, he'd rather not move with his wife and two young children.

When he left another Detroit-area company to work at Ford seven years ago, a job with the automaker was considered the ultimate in blue-collar work with great money, benefits and hours - someplace you'd stay the rest of your life.

But Ford's fortunes have changed since then, losing $2.7 billion last year and $12.6 billion the year before. It mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to pay bills and fund a turnaround plan, and it doesn't expect to make money again until next year.

Sliding sales

Sales of Ford's vehicles continue to decline, although the company points to bright spots like the new Focus small car or Edge crossover vehicle.

But to McDonald, the troubles are so apparent that he no longer sees Ford as the place to be for life.

"That's all gone," he said this week while checking out options at a job fair that the automaker set up at his plant. "I don't think that's around anymore."

Right now there's plenty of work and training for electricians at the Livonia factory, but McDonald wonders about continued downsizing.

The current buyout offers come in addition to a 2006 round in which 33,600 workers left the company.

"If Ford Motor Co is reducing in size, how many electricians do they really need overall?" McDonald asked, noting that he's relatively low on the seniority list and could be vulnerable to layoff.

The company keeps saying new products are coming that will turn things around, but McDonald is skeptical.

"They just keep saying 'we've got stuff coming.' But I haven't seen it or really felt we're going to do it now," he said.

As McDonald balanced his dilemma at the job fair, the decision was clearer for others.

Production worker Ann Franklin of Harper Woods has 30 years with Ford, even though she's only 57. She can take an early retirement package and get $50,000, plus a full pension and health insurance, but she's still reluctant to sign up.

Fear of unknown

"I'm kind of thinking about it," she said. "It's a scary thing. You're not sure of the unknown."

Franklin's three children are grown and out of the house, and she'd like to move, maybe to Florida or Georgia, she said as she browsed among the 25 employers, franchise businesses and schools at the job fair.

Rudy Almaraz, 37, a production worker who lives in nearby Westland, has 10 years with the company and could get up to $100,000 to leave. But after taxes, he says, it would be about $65,000, less than he now makes in a year.

Like McDonald, he worries about Ford's future but has to support his family. Although he's talked to his wife about moving to Florida and opening up a surf shop, he's probably going to stick it out and hope for the best.

"They'd have to sweeten up the pot" for him to leave, he said.

As McDonald went back-and-forth about taking a package, he seemed to settle on staying, with hopes that Ford will raise the gas mileage of its F-series pickup trucks - the most popular vehicles in the US - to jump start sales.

"If I could stay with Ford, it's in my heart. I've got to stay with Ford," he said before leaving the job fair. "You never know. They could rally and end up becoming huge again."

Agencies

(China Daily 03/07/2008 page16)