Ford plans to lose 8,000 hourly workers

DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- The Ford Motor Co. hopes to cut another 8,000 blue-collar jobs by offering larger buyout packages, The Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.

The newspaper cited sources familiar with the company.

Ford's hourly workforce in North America has fallen by 36 percent, or 35,500 jobs, since 2005. If the company can convince another 8,000 to leave, the workforce will have been cut 44 percent in three years.

The company is offering a number of early retirement and buyout deals. Those eligible for retirement who agree to give up all benefits except their pensions, for example, would receive a one-off payment of $140,000.

The lump sum benefit for skilled trades workers who take early retirement has been doubled to $70,000.

Tony Monteleone, 43, who works at the Dearborn Truck Plant, said the company will have a hard time convincing people to leave because of the stories about former Ford workers who took buyouts and have already spent their lump-sum payments and cannot find jobs.