The closing of the Norfolk Ford plant is expected to take place in the third quarter 2007. In the meantime, Ford is offering severance packages. Yesterday was the deadline for the hourly workers to decide which package to choose: education, lump sum payment or early retirement. The problem was the timing of the deadline. Workers were told they had until midnight Tuesday but somehow, the deadline got changed to 3:30pm. Why the change?
[Local 919 president Chris] Kimmons suspects Ford does not want too many workers to leave immediately because it might not have enough people to work the lines.
The deal was that they could resign and still get the buyout money, which ranged from $35,000 to $140,000, depending on years of service, age and time to retirement. But with too many resignations (the buyouts have cut the staff in half), the plant cannot operate.
I guess it is logical that Ford would want to trim the workforce in anticipation of the plant closings as well as to deal with the reduced demand for their vehicles. But changing the deadline was not a nice thng to do.
Fortunately, it only affected a few workers. Of the nearly 2,200 hourly workers at the plant, only about 200 had not made a decision by the original Monday deadline. Another 190 had made a decision by the 3:30pm Tuesday deadline.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
We hear alot about Ford and the employees of Ford. What about the businesses associated with it? Anything on any of the outsource companies such as TDS?
There hasn’t been any news for the outsource companies that I have seen.
Here’s waht cracks me up about this… The Comany took credit for working this early out deal and the local Union Prez was quick to say “No, no, no.. Thank the Union!”
Now that this plan has caused workers pain, where is the Union taking credit/blame? Nowhere.
LOVE Unions. [sacarsm]
What gets me is the fact that TDS (where my son works), is part of the union and they have done absolutely nothing for them. They pay their dues just like the Ford employees and to date their jobs/lives are still in jeopardy.
Then he needs to contact the union, since that’s who has all the info.
Seems to me the unions carry the major responsibility for pricing their members out of competition.