Ford plans more payroll reductions

With the auto market worsening almost daily for Ford Motor Co., management told union officials Friday that the company would have to further reduce its factory workforce in the coming months.

The slumping economy and pump prices above $4 a gallon have contributed to an 8% reduction in U.S. auto sales during the first five months of the year. It’s been a double hit on Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler as their high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles are shunned by car buyers looking for more-fuel-efficient vehicles.

United Auto Workers union officials were told in a meeting that Ford needed to make additional cost cuts “so that we can make the vehicles in an efficient way that customers are buying,” Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said.

At the meeting, attended by about 300 executives, plant managers and union officials from across the U.S., Ford reiterated previous statements that it would make buyout and early retirement offers at targeted factories as it tries to further pare its payroll.

Gattari said Ford was still trying to determine which factories would get the offers, but preferred to use them over steps such as factory closures.

Ford said in May that it would cut production of trucks and SUVs, but increase factory output of cars and crossovers through additional shifts and overtime and the realignment of some of its manufacturing capacity. The company also said it planned to accelerate the North American introduction of some of its small cars from Europe and South America, although it didn’t reveal which vehicles.

During the last three years, Ford has cut its hourly workforce by about 40,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

Shares of Ford rose 27 cents Friday to $6.27.