Ford Warns of New Steps if Sales Decline
Even as the Ford Motor Company?s 54,000 hourly workers prepare to vote on their new contract, the automaker is warning that it may have to adjust its corporate restructuring plan if industry sales continue to slide. Leaders of United Automobile Workers union locals at Ford unanimously approved the deal Monday at a meeting near company headquarters here. Contract ratification voting is expected to begin on Wednesday and finish Nov. 12, the UAW?s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said. Under the agreement, Ford would continue to operate six plants that it planned to close under its overhaul plan, known as the Way Forward. Two other factories, a truck plant in Minnesota and a casting plant in Cleveland, will close a year later than previously announced.
See "Ford Warns of New Steps if Sales Decline", Nick Bunkley and Micheline Maynard, The New York Times, November 5, 2007