As Ford prepares to shift manufacturing from once-popular, gas-guzzling SUVs to smaller midsize cars, hourly workers in southeast Michigan wait for a voluntary buyout offer they expected several weeks earlier. A Ford vice president, Joe Hinrichs, says that the buyouts are still coming, but have been delayed in hopes of better communication. Many Michigan hourly workers are temporarily out-of-work at the moment and agreement details have not been finalized with the UAW. UAW Local 600 president says that many workers plan to take up the buyout offer. Ford has let almost 40,000 hourly workers since 2005, and has made no comment about the future of the remaining 61,000.
See "Ford delays its buyout offers to hourly workers", Sarah A. Webster, Detroit Free Press, August 26, 2008