Ford workers face bleak Christmas

Struggo · 03-09-2013, 09:21 PM

Ford Australia workers could be forced to take crucial pay cuts heading into Christmas after sales of the company's locally made Falcon and Territory variants failed to improve during August.

Monthly figures released on Wednesday by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries will confirm that Falcon sales have dipped to their lowest levels in 53 years, with about 580 vehicles sold during August. Preliminary numbers also show the Falcon's SUV sibling, the Territory, fell to about 800 sales during the same month.

The performances contributed to a 20 per cent drop in overall sales for the Blue Oval brand compared with the corresponding period last year.

Ford Australia is halfway through a 12-day shutdown spread across August and September. Of Ford's 1200 manufacturing employees, 750 have been stood down on half-wages, with the option of topping up their salaries using annual leave entitlements.

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The August sales result followed a previous record low of 594 Falcons sales during July. Ford will now consider whether to schedule more down days at its Broadmeadows plant in the approach to Christmas. It is understood the federal election result on Saturday will be a key consideration.

Ford spokeswoman Sinead Phipps said six of the 12 shutdown days already flagged were directly attributable to recent changes to the fringe benefits tax. The controversial FBT adjustments, labelled by the car industry a $1.8 billion rort, have become an important policy issue.

''The 12 days that we currently have are spread equally across August and September, and we'll see what happens in September before we decide if we need to do any more or not,'' she said.

''The [August] figures are in line with what our dealers were reporting back when the FBT changes were implemented, so there was no great surprise.''

Dave Smith, the national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union vehicle division, disputed the significance of the recent FBT changes.

''To be quite honest, I'm pretty dirty,'' he said of Ford Australia's reaction to the changes.

''The government announced the changes to the FBT and it was only a matter of days that the company was out announcing more down days. Ford have made a decision to pull the pin on manufacturing in Australia - it's no coincidence that there's been a massive drop in their sales. It's a direct result of that decision.

Ford arch-rival Holden mostly weathered the so-called effects of FBT changes in August by posting about 2800 sales of its new VF Commodore, an increase of 400 cars compared with August 2012.

The Mazda3 was the top-selling car in August with 4180 sales, ahead of the Toyota Corolla (3680), which remains the highest seller for the first eight months of the year.

http://smh.drive.com.au/ford-workers...903-2t39m.html

I feel for the workers and their families, tough times indeed.

Cheese3 · 03-09-2013, 09:26 PM

Looks like I'll be getting coal in my stocking from Santa.

(I can joke about it because I actually do work for Ford :p)

JG66ME · 03-09-2013, 09:32 PM

Let us wait. On Sunday the FBT threat may be gone and on Monday all of those people that held off ordering a car to novate since July will be placing an order.

I will be placing mine as soon as the new model is released.

Wretched · 03-09-2013, 10:08 PM

It's not only Ford workers, how many people lost their job this year?
My thoughts are with all those who have lost their jobs this year.

CyberWasp · 03-09-2013, 11:14 PM

I might be wrong but aren't these sales figures lower than that of the Mitsubishi 380 when they stopped production?

bobthebilda · 04-09-2013, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CyberWasp

I might be wrong but aren't these sales figures lower than that of the Mitsubishi 380 when they stopped production?

The Falcon Sales are. From memory the 380 sales had fallen to about a 1000 a month at the time that it decided to stop it. But Ford is making the Territory and Falcon ute also, so the factory is still selling approx. 1800 locally in a bad month, with a few hundred more for export to NZ.

And the article says there are 1200 workers at Ford Assembly operations, at the time of Mitsys closure they had 1000 employees, so Ford is still doing nearly twice the work per employee than Mitsy was doing at closure time (and I assume the average sale price of a local Ford car would be higher than what a 380 was). So they arent quite as bad as what Mitsy was at time of closure.

GQ_Smooth · 04-09-2013, 08:06 AM

Scary times ahead. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst!

vztrt · 04-09-2013, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

The Falcon Sales are. From memory the 380 sales had fallen to about a 1000 a month at the time that it decided to stop it.

Pretty sure it was much lower just before they pulled the pin. 1000 units was when alarm bells really started ringing.

I have noticed that ute builds have jumped up in the last month or so.

Bossxr8 · 04-09-2013, 09:15 PM

Mitsubishi was building 50 cars a day when they shut up shop. At least we are still doing 3 times that.

But I think if we get to mid 2015 it will be a miracle.

I'll guess we will wait and see what happens after Saturday.

Random Ranger · 04-09-2013, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Mitsubishi was building 50 cars a day when they shut up shop. At least we are still doing 3 times that.

But I think if we get to mid 2015 it will be a miracle.

I'll guess we will wait and see what happens after Saturday.

If they're selling less than 20 a day why are they making 150?-(3 times that)? Stockpiling I suppose hoping for the fbt change.

Road_Warrior · 04-09-2013, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I'll guess we will wait and see what happens after Saturday.

Spot on.

naddis01 · 04-09-2013, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Random Ranger

If they're selling less than 20 a day why are they making 150?-(3 times that)? Stockpiling I suppose hoping for the fbt change.

Because they make more than just Falcon sedan.

Smoke Pursuit · 04-09-2013, 09:41 PM

Yep... Plus theres export to NZ.

mr smith · 04-09-2013, 09:47 PM

I've seen some of the union propaganda about the FBT. They are up the creek coz their poster boy KRudd sold them a dud deal and the the only way out for the workers is to vote Libs.
Big shift for the boys on the floor.

Bossxr8 · 04-09-2013, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Random Ranger

If they're selling less than 20 a day why are they making 150?-(3 times that)? Stockpiling I suppose hoping for the fbt change.

Territory+ute, minus down days and PDO's etc.

DanielXR8 · 05-09-2013, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr smith

I've seen some of the union propaganda about the FBT. They are up the creek coz their poster boy KRudd sold them a dud deal and the the only way out for the workers is to vote Libs.
Big shift for the boys on the floor.

Huh?

Blind Freddy could see that when you announce your pulling the pin on two of your main products come 2016 and you are lessening your commitment to Australia by sacking staff and closing down manufacturing in this country, that it WILL affect sales of your locally produced models.

Historically every brand that has closed down manufacturing in Australia have suffered the same consequence in the short to medium term. Ford has no reason to believe it will be otherwise, especially given it was trending down in sales on local products faster then its competitors for years anyway.

What would have been nice is if Ford was honest enough to say that and not try and fob off their decisions on a FBT argument that is not supported by similar record drops in car sales by our other two local manufacturers Toyota and Holden. The drop that can be attributed to FBT is a tiny fraction of what Ford is suffering in sales decline.

I think Fords response shows part of the problems they really have. After years of fobbing off the media and consumers, they have come to the point where they aren't viable in Australia and still believe the public is stupid and that facing consequences is not something Ford Australia management need to do.

For the employees on the floor I have nothing but sympathy with their situation. That said the FBT is a storm in a teacup next to the damage Ford inflicted on themselves over the years. The fact that soon enough people at Ford will be paying for that incompetence and arrogance with their jobs and people in marketing and executive positions at Ford still have yet to learn a lesson about the need to change and take responsibility is disgraceful.

Bossxr8 · 05-09-2013, 04:51 PM

Right from the start Ford were saying it was going to effect Australian built cars more than their imported models, obviously because they must be leased more.

And I guess with there being order banks for most imported stuff the decline may still be coming, although we probably won't see it as the Libs will win on Saturday and it will be irrelevant anyway.

But the people in marketing and the executives get to keep their jobs post 2016, so why do they care?

Cheese3 · 05-09-2013, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Mitsubishi was building 50 cars a day when they shut up shop. At least we are still doing 3 times that.

But I think if we get to mid 2015 it will be a miracle.

I'll guess we will wait and see what happens after Saturday.

Yeh it's not looking crash hot atm for us, had an 8 weekly today and yeah hmmmm we can only wait and see 2015 would be a miracle ....

fte50 · 05-09-2013, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr smith

I've seen some of the union propaganda about the FBT. They are up the creek coz their poster boy KRudd sold them a dud deal and the the only way out for the workers is to vote Libs.
Big shift for the boys on the floor.

Actually neither of the 2 preferred parties are worthy of a vote - 6 in one, 1/2dozen in the other, same incompetent evil in a different suit.

One goes into deficit and screws the economy, whilst the other tries to regain a surplus by cutting vital services and infrastructure.

Neither party over the course of the last 2 decades has made any value added contribution to arrest the slide of our manufacturing decline and de-industrialisation.

Call me what u will, but Australia needs better than either of these self righteous pension seeking puppets.

Bossxr8 · 06-09-2013, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheese3

Yeh it's not looking crash hot atm for us, had an 8 weekly today and yeah hmmmm we can only wait and see 2015 would be a miracle ....

It was funny seeing certain AMWU officials who I won't mention get stuck into the company execs today for the pathetic excuses they keep coming up with why they can't sell cars. Blame everything except themselves, yet we all know they do absolutely zero to promote and sell Falcon and Territory bar a few Territory ads on TV. They are happy to let it die off quickly.

timeout · 07-09-2013, 06:36 AM

What the best way too kill it off? Pretend to do something about it, I cannot see production lasting if the sales are so low.

Would it not make sense to get the new one out asap.

GT014 · 07-09-2013, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timeout

What the best way too kill it off? Pretend to do something about it, I cannot see production lasting if the sales are so low.

Would it not make sense to get the new one out asap.

That's my thought, you would be pulling all stops and fast tracking the FH so it's more competitive. If deciding most people would take the brand new vf over the aging 5yr old (6 next year) fg.

I reckon ford are deliberately dragging there heals so sales stay extremely low, then they can justify closing early before the FH even gets a chance.

bobthebilda · 07-09-2013, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT014

That's my thought, you would be pulling all stops and fast tracking the FH so it's more competitive. If deciding most people would take the brand new vf over the aging 5yr old (6 next year) fg.

I reckon ford are deliberately dragging there heals so sales stay extremely low, then they can justify closing early before the FH even gets a chance.

At current build rates, Ford has every incentive to cease production asap. Alot of the current Federal Government funding is only available to manufacturers of (or to suppliers who supply to manufacturers of) 30,000 cars per annum. I dont think Ford ever chose the current build rate of 135 cars per day out of great market predictions (they havent shown that ability in the past). Theres approx 222 work days in a year,and if you divide 30,000 (government funding target) by 222 (work days a year), you get 135 cars required to be built a day. Ford must be very close to, if not past that point (with the recently announced planned down days). The losses they currently make on each locally made car, will only triple or quadruple once they lose specific government funding.

rdmr · 07-09-2013, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

At current build rates, Ford has every incentive to cease production asap. Alot of the current Federal Government funding is only available to manufacturers of (or to suppliers who supply to manufacturers of) 30,000 cars per annum. I dont think Ford ever chose the current build rate of 135 cars per day out of great market predictions (they havent shown that ability in the past). Theres approx 222 work days in a year,and if you divide 30,000 (government funding target) by 222 (work days a year), you get 135 cars required to be built a day. Ford must be very close to, if not past that point (with the recently announced planned down days). The losses they currently make on each locally made car, will only triple or quadruple once they lose specific government funding.

Ford make 149 a day mate, not 135.

bobthebilda · 07-09-2013, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdmr

Ford make 149 a day mate, not 135.

And in August, they sold around 100 cars for each day of production. Build rate up = Work days down (which means down days)

Bossxr8 · 07-09-2013, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT014

That's my thought, you would be pulling all stops and fast tracking the FH so it's more competitive. If deciding most people would take the brand new vf over the aging 5yr old (6 next year) fg.

I reckon ford are deliberately dragging there heals so sales stay extremely low, then they can justify closing early before the FH even gets a chance.

They can't drag it forwards, they have already tried. Supplier lead times and the development required for new electrical gadgets has ruled it out.

They don't want another repeat of the Territory touch screen debacle either.

malazn mafia · 07-09-2013, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

They can't drag it forwards, they have already tried. Supplier lead times and the development required for new electrical gadgets has ruled it out.

They don't want another repeat of the Territory touch screen debacle either.

There are new electrical gadgets this time around ?

Bossxr8 · 07-09-2013, 10:08 PM

Supposedly blind spot alert and that sort of stuff. Not sure which ones.

**PepeLePew** · 07-09-2013, 10:23 PM

Hopefully for the guys on the floor we can see some sort of spike in demand at least for now after tonight's political events. As for 'FH' Ford are living proof you can present the best product to market and the Australian market just doesn't buy it. Some of this is advertising, some of it just makes zero sense except for a parochial culture perhaps bred by 'holden cars' and 'meat pies' advertising over the years we've missed out on which Ford somehow lost touch with after the brilliant 'super roo'. ;) Sorry but 'we're moving with you' never really cut it.

RikBiel · 07-09-2013, 10:25 PM

I wonder how many people are in the same boat as me.
I will be buying a new XR6T
My dilemma is it to be an FG2 or an FH

I can't decide because I don't really know if I'll like the look of the FH or whether it will have more power than current FG2.... I am unsure

It will be one or the other.
If FH looks ugly (to me) it will be FG2 in a flash.

This is going to be a future classic whether it is FG2 or FH
I also normally prefer "Mark 2" as they iron out Mark 1 issues....will FH even get a Mark 2....probably not if it even gets a Mark ! !!!