by Bruce Walker
Two thousand salaried and 1,000 contract employees will be cut from Ford Motor Co.’s payroll this week.
Jobs in the United States, Canada and India will be eliminated.
“Building this future requires changing and reshaping virtually all aspects of the way we have operated for more than a century,” CEO Jim Farley and Executive Chair Bill Ford wrote in a letter obtained by Automotive News and reprinted on Crain’s Detroit Business online. “It requires focus, clarity and speed. And, as we have discussed in recent months, it means redeploying resources and addressing our cost structure, which is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors.”
This may not be the entirety of bad news for Ford employees. The Center Square reported July 22, the automaker may cut up to 8,000 jobs as a cost-saving maneuver for investing in its electric truck lineup. TCS also reported the job cuts on the heels of Ford announcing it was planning to use $134 million of Michigan taxpayer dollars to retool three plants in Wayne, Flat Rock and Monroe.
Gov. Whitmer, MEDC approve $2.8 million Michigan workforce training grants
Seventy-four training facilities in Michigan will divide more than $2.8 million of taxpayer money for skills development, equipment training and other employee learning programs.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Employment Development Corp. made the announcement on Friday.
The news follows a $3 million allocation to the Michigan Strategic Fund for the Michigan Workforce Training Center Equipment Grant Program. Fifteen nonprofit economic development organizations consulted with MEDC on the one-time grants to training programs throughout the state. Among the recipients are proprietary schools, registered U.S. Department of Labor joint apprenticeship training centers, qualified employers with a presence in Michigan and vendors responsible for equipment and machinery training.
“Michigan’s skilled workforce is powering our economic growth, and I am proud that we are making additional investments to expand training, skills development, and more to help them succeed,” said Whitmer. “We are working with several partners to build on our economic momentum, ensuring that Michiganders in every region of our great state can get on a path to a good-paying job and businesses of all sizes have the resources and talent they need to compete in the global economy.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Ford” by Mike Mozart. CC BY 2.0.
