Ford on Friday terminated contract and agency employees. As in keeping with large corporate greed, no notice is given, the cut in contract jobs is effective immediately with no notice. Just another Merry Christmas wish from Ford because as Jim Farley says we need to care for each other!
25 replies (most recent on top)
Previously there used to be informal distinction within contractor ranks. Some were regular contractors and some were irregular contractors. In this layoff, it seems all contractors are let go (and that too before xmas). Anyone knows how many contractors are terminated at Ford?
@3xyj+18hm3BFX
I have heard the same rumor. In fact it has already started. I personally know 2 Director/Chief level people in PD - who clearly have 7-10 years of service left - suddenly "retiring" this week. At lower levels I believe the timing is around March.
@3xyj+18hm3BFX
I have heard the same rumor. In fact it has already started. I personally know 2 Director/Chief level people in PD - who clearly have 7-10 years of service left - suddenly "retiring" this week. At lower levels I believe the timing is around March.
With the upcoming Broncos lauching why would F eliminate workers with the demand forecasted? Why do people say salty cuts next. This doesn’t seem like sales are slowing and heavy cuts the last 2 years
I am a full time employee.. It is not a pretty sight to see people let go. If the management demonstrated courage by letting the troops know well in advance then maybe you might earn their respect. Rumor mill has it that there will be further salaried cuts in the 8-10% range.. But we continue to stay in markets we loose money.. nine PD centers around the world! WHY? 90%+ of the profits comes from one vehicle F-Series. Tired of the layoffs and having to look over your shoulder worried they might tap you. If HR or Farley or even Billy read this . Tell the people in advance if you plan to cut . At least a six month warning.
Many people also believe that they have the special sauce that makes them immune to a lay-off and engage in victim blaming. These people are unable to see that at some point they will be ensnared in a lay-off net.
So why contract you ask? It is all about the Benjamin’s and the flexibility. In order to convert to full time employee 25k per year salary loss. In addition contractors don’t have to deal with all the Ford political BS. If one grows tired of the gig, well then just hop to another contract. Want a month of, then take it.
Being a Ford employee doesn’t make your job any more secure. You are only fooling yourself if you think it does.
I came to work, did my job for hourly rate. I worked every single hour I billed for.
I cannot say the same for Ford employees I worked with. Most maybe put in two hours of work a day. There were rare birds who actually worked 8-10 hours a day. The slackers claimed my work on their PRs.
Response to @2ffz+18hm3BFX:
No, the point of a contract is that they can pay you less, give you no benefits, and not pay you bonuses.
Now, as for me, when they recruited me for the job for which I was just let go, they specifically said they wanted somebody who was not a "job hopper", and would stick around. Which I did.
The whole agency thing is exploitive as hell, and there should be laws, but the whole thing worked very well for me, being an older worker who didn't need benefits, already had a pension from another company, and wanted maximum flexibility for taking time off.
For a younger person, who wants to start a family, this system does not work at all.
You ask, why would you stay in a contract position for more than 1-2 years?
Well let me ask you, where are you going to go?
With most companies using large amounts of contract workers, you are going to go into a similar position anyway, somewhere else.
Also, if you are an older worker, they are NEVER going to convert you to direct. Nobody is. So why go somewhere else?
And, if you think that you are more immune from a layoff as a direct employee, over an agency employee, you are kidding yourself.
As a 32 year vet of this industry, most as a direct employee, I have seen it all, and I can tell you that it is a fallacy that people seem to have.
Lastly, you seem to want to blame the victims of this system.
The real question is not why somebody would stay in a contract position for 1-2 years, but why companies are allowed, by law, to exploit workers, in very large numbers, by not converting them after 1-2 years?
@2usn+18hm3BFX WCF already has more money than he could hope to spend in 3 lifetimes. For him its always been about the fame and adulation. If Bill sold the company he would just be another trust fund baby instead of a trust fund baby with "Chairman" in front of his name.
One side of me thinks Billy boy just wants to reduce the size of the company and sell the company to a buyer.......the other side thinking he is probably too proud of the Ford name to be doing that. Nevertheless, Ford as a company is surely dying.....
I thought the point of having contract or agency employees was so that the employment could be easily terminated as needed. Did your contract state you were to be given notice? Why would you stay at an employer more than 1-2 years who wouldn’t hire you directly? Take control of your own fate and market yourself to other employers proactively. Ensure you know terms of possible termination too.
The Ford Truths, Values and Culture exist only on posters.
The lived Truths, Values and Culture is nothing like the posters.
Posters splattered on every surface in buildings is an indicator of a systemic culture problem.
This exactly what happened to me six months ago, after four years of working as a contract I got a call with four words ''Ford end your assignment"
"Putting people first" is one of the Ford Truths from the Hackett-era motivational posters. What the glossy posters don't say is that the place Ford puts people is under the bus.
Does this mean salaried cuts are coming in January?
Can anyone on the inside estimate how people were laid off?
It is not that contractor were laid off. It is how and when was done. No notice? In some cases after 6 pm on Friday? Effectively immediately? I would expect something else from Ford, specially after all the PR about how Ford cares about employees.
Ford management dropped the ball with the contractors and with whomever have to clean the mess after. No time to transfer the tasks or projects, no time to say goodbye, disrespectfully and cowardly done.
Thanks
Exactly, and what really floors me is companies like Ford complain (wine and moan) that they can't
find Engineers. I got cut back in April and have given up hope of finding anything.
After working in the industry for 20 years this never surprises me. I am currently a contract worker at another Detroit three, and I treat this as a contract only. I expect the call Ford people got any week.
It's a cut throat industry and nobody can be considered a friend. Always be strictly business and you might last longer than some others. Have a long term plan and don't consider what you are doing at the moment to last. It's a good idea to almost be constantly applying to new jobs, just in case you get f*, you have some contacts or interviews in the bank.
@1pws When Bill says he loves his 'family', aka employees, he is referring to the money they bring in, not the actual people.
I always visualize Bill swimming in his vault of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck.
Where's Bill Ford? All we hear about is how much he loves and cares for Ford employees who he refers to as "family." Do you remember that time when there was an explosion at the Rouge factory and he showed up even though the lawyers told him not to? Well he sure does and he loves to tell the press that story. So where is he when his beloved family are being cruelly cut before the holidays with no notice or severance in the middle of a pandemic? That sure doesn't sound like good guy Bill taking care of his people. Its almost as if he doesn't care at all about Ford employees and only says that stuff to the press because he likes to buff his image.
Now I have to think, when I find whereever I can work in the next place, should I make positive contributions, or just sabotage American automotive and be happy with paychecks??
I worked hard for two years, and it's time to cash in this disgusting country in with protection of disability, mental discorder, minority status, gender identity and religion causes.
Former GM employee who was affected by layoffs Feb 2019 here. I was engineer, early 30s, had "meet or exceed expectations" on our appraisal system.
Prior to my layoff, our contractors were too laid off weekend after Thanksgiving effective immediately via call or text. I can tell you our managers had NO input NOR notices and we all found out same way Monday after via exec director email. In addition, I had work scheduled with contractor technicians that day and was major curveball
It’s really rough, but the purpose of agency employees are that they are a buffer so Ford employees won’t have to get laid off.
Immediate boss has some input, and then everything is bounced 2-3 levels up the line for final decisions. Sponsors rescue their favorites, managers talk about old baggage for people that is totally unrelated to recent contributions in order to provide some reason to throw them to the bottom, etc. Few in the room know you unless you have been around a while with some exposure to senior management. Often one negative comment from anyone sinks you unless someone else speaks up to save you, which seldom happens. Disagreements are worked out on the sidelines. Usually involves I'll support X if you will support Y, and then I am ok with cutting Z. Fill the buckets and they we all get lunch.
Then HR and Legal run the disparate impact analyses and recommend necessary adjustments to get everything bullet proof in terms of diversity, discrimination, etc. A few tweaks are made and it's done.
You might be surprised at who screw*ed you. May be someone getting back at you for something that happened ages ago, not necessarily anyone in your direct line of reporting.
Good luck to you all!
Super duoche move on the part of Ford.
Just last week, I was told by my Chief Engineer that my hours would be going back up to 40 per week, and my 10% pay cut would end, after the first of the year.
Than Friday evening, having a good feeling going into the holidays, I get THE CALL.
So, either my Chief Engineer was in the dark about this, or he was lying.
Since he is one of the very few people in management at Ford with any integrity, that I met in my 8.5 years there, I tend to believe that he did not know about it. Must have come from the very top, and kept under wraps until the last moment.
They just gave me a new laptop LAST WEEK, for crying out loud!
What an exceedingly poor way to run things.
Well, fluck you Ford. I, nor any of my extended family, will ever be purchasing a Ford product again. Multiply that by the number of folks you've boned over with this. Thats a lot of customers.
While the execs collect their multi-million dollar bonuses for running the company into the ground, and they spend many millions to put up buildings that nobody needs.
Whomever was involved in making this decision to crush people's lives, make no mistake, you are horrible, horrible people.