TORONTO — Automaker Ford (NYSE:F) has confirmed that a round of buyouts aimed at reducing its global workforce will be offered to about 20 per cent of its 6,200 workers in Canada.
The U.S.-based automaker says it is working resize its manufacturing capacity to better align it to market conditions.
Ford announced Monday it would offer buyout or retirement incentive packages to all of its 41,000 hourly workers in the United States.
Ford is the healthiest of Detroit’s three automakers and the only one to avoid government aid and bankruptcy protection. Even so, it says it still has more workers than it needs to produce cars and trucks.
Specific financial details of the offer to the Canadian Auto Workers union members were not disclosed.
However, they company said the offer applies solely to hourly workers at its plant in Windsor, Ont., which currently employs 1,600 workers and has 1,000 on layoff.
“These incentives stem from the recently concluded negotiations with the CAW,” the email said.
In the U.S., Ford’s buyout package is available to workers with at least a year of service and it includes $50,000 cash and the choice of a $25,000 voucher to buy a vehicle or $20,000 more in cash.
Besides the Windsor workers, Ford also employs about 2,900 workers in Oakvile, Ont.; 1,400 in St. Thomas, Ont., and 300 at parts depots in Bramalea, Ont. and Edmonton.