Vic: Up to 350 jobs to go at Ford

AAP General News (Australia)
08-22-2008
Vic: Up to 350 jobs to go at Ford

By Michelle Draper

MELBOURNE, Aug 22 AAP - Ford Australia predicted more jobs could be lost across the
nation's car industry this year as it announced up to 350 jobs would be cut from its own
Victorian plants.

The redundancies will affect workers at the company's Geelong and Broadmeadows factories
in mid-November.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary said changing consumer preferences, rising fuel prices
and economic factors had caused a decline in the large car segment.

As a result, the company will reduce the speed of its production line by 20 to 25 per
cent, slashing car production from 52 units an hour to 40.

This will mean about 285 cars will be produced a day, compared to the current 365,
Ms McAlary said.

She said the job losses would be voluntary and evenly split between the Geelong and
Broadmeadows plants.

Ms McAlary said Ford anticipated the whole car industry would experience a downturn
for the rest of the year.

"We expect the total industry to soften for the second half of this year," she told AAP.

"It started in July and we anticipate that we'll see more of these actions across the
industry for the rest of this year.

But Ms McAlary said the company planned to hire about 300 staff when it started production
of the Ford Focus in 2011.

That will add another 40,000 units back into production, she said.

"What we've said previously is that to cater for that we'll have to hire approximately
300 (staff) but unfortunately the action we have to take now is to manage the business
in the interim."

Ms McAlary said Ford would work with the union in line with the agreement with employees
to manage the redundancies.

The new cuts follows Ford's announcement earlier this year that 600 jobs would be lost
when local six-cylinder engine production ends in 2010.

The decision comes at a turbulent time for Australia's automotive industry.

Holden has already axed 1,100 jobs in Melbourne and Adelaide.

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KEYWORD: FORD DAYLEAD

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