<VV> Ford Shutdown NO CORVAIR

[henry kaczmarek]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "henry kaczmarek" <kaczmarek at charter.net>
To: <mygroups at frontiernet.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:46 AM
Subject: Re: <VV> RE: Wise Gal


> Chris
>
>>
>>>Now, a question for the manufacturing engineers in the crowd. Ford has 
>>>announced it is closing a half dozen plants until the end of the year. 
>>>I'm assuming that means they'll be "mothballing" them for a while. The 
>>>question is, what do you do to mothball something as huge and complicated 
>>>as an automobile assembly plant?
>
> In the Case of the Norfolk, VA F-150 assembly plant, the shutdown will be 
> PERMANENT. The Union has already told the rank and file at that plant that 
> they won't be re-opening, regardless of what Bill Ford tells the press. 
> And a Ford upper Management employee who called for Rubber Parts told me 
> as much about 2 months ago, he was getting ready to move back to Dearborn 
> from Norfolk.
>
> Including Norfolk, there are 4 Plants in N. America that build the F-150. 
> And though it is still the most popular and best selling truck in the US, 
> have you looked at the price of one lately?    I bought mine last year 
> duing employee pricing, and paid 21.8K for a truck that stickered at just 
> under 30K.
>
> Mine is a Middle of the Road truck, Smaller V-8, XLT Pkg (not Lariat or 
> Ranch), extended  not Super Cab. You want a Lariat?  A Diesel? A Super 
> Duty (F-250 or 350 or higher?)  Get ready to get fleeced.
>>>
>> We build assembly line equipment like Ford uses (we built some of their 
>> current equipment in fact). The restart will be way more complicated than 
>> the shutdown.
>
> I would be willing to bet that many of the shutdown plants won't have 
> restart to worry about.
>
>
>>>
>> I suppose if they are temporarily closing factories they will be paying 
>> their people to stay home until their oversupply of vehicles passes.
>
> Nope, the state will pay them unemployment, and Ford makes up the 
> difference so that laid off workers will get 95% of their take home pay. 
> They made that deal with the Union some time ago. That was also in the 
> press releases this week.
>
>
>
> I
>> heard the other day that some of the car manufacturers have 70+ days of 
>> inventory built up already (imports and domestics both).
>>
>> Anybody able to explain how they save money paying people to stay at home 
>> and shutting down the factories? Labor is a cost and the factories are 
>> not paying for themselves... <???>
>
>
> Don't expect an answer to that one. But in this case it's probably safe to 
> say it's cheaper to send them home and let inventories drop until they 
> really need to put some of them back to work.
>
> I had a friend from Norfolk Sheriff's Depart. leave and get a job at Ford. 
> He tried to get me in once he had been there a few months, but at that 
> time Ford decided that they didn't have enough minority women in that 
> plant and there was no way a white male had a chance.  Same reason I 
> didn't become a VA Probation/Parole Officer. Not enough minority women 
> with bullshit degrees in Sociology or Criminal Justice, with no experience 
> with inmates.  Just being Fashionable.
>
> I was upset I didn't get the job at Ford, but now I won't be a 50 year old 
> guy with no job, and no marketable skill--Manufacturing experience is 
> becoming worthless in the US.
>
> My buddy that is losing his job at Ford spent the 1st 6 years he was there 
> installing the same 7 screws.  I don't think I could have stood that. Now 
> he has no job prospects, and a thrice re-financed home, 2 cars, a Harley 
> Davidson, and about 5K worth of golf Clubs he has to figure out how he's 
> going to make payments on.
>
> And his hair (what he has left, has turned pure white in the last 6 
> months, since the rumors began)
>
> Better him than me.
>
> Hank
>>
>> Chris in Cookeville
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