Ford extends buyout offers to more hourly workers

RICHMOND, Ind (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) will extend buyout offers to hourly workers at more than a dozen plants in Michigan and Ohio next week as it looks to trim its workforce to match a declining U.S. market share.

Ford, which posted a $2.7 billion loss in 2007 and has abandoned a long-standing goal of returning to profitability in 2009, had previously extended buyout offers at plants in Kentucky and Ohio due to the declining demand for large pickup trucks and SUVs.

The company is offering buyouts to workers at those 14 sites starting next week, giving employees through October to decide whether to leave the company. Another set of offers will be made in mid-August to workers at three other facilities in that region, and will be extended through November.

The buyouts offered next week and in mid-August include five assembly plants as well as many related stamping, engine and transmission facilities. The company has not said how many workers in all it would like to trim through the buyout offers.

Ford previously had made companywide buyout offers to trim thousands of blue-collar jobs in North America. It has cut its U.S. hourly work force by about 40,000 over the past three years to roughly 54,000.

About 4,200 hourly workers accepted buyouts in the last companywide offer earlier this year. Ford said it would target offers to specific plants as needed afterward, as an already soft U.S. auto market has accelerated downward in recent months.

Ford is not alone in looking to cut back production and even jobs in North America with the dramatic shift in demand toward cars and crossovers and away from larger vehicles.

General Motors Corp GM.N last week announced broad cost cuts and potential asset sales to shore up its liquidity in the downturn, and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has announced plans to reduce production of larger vehicles in favor of fuel efficient cars such as the hybrid Prius sedan.

Ford also plans to trim about 15 percent of its salaried expenses by August 1 under the turnaround plans. Those cuts are expected to include involuntary dismissals.

In mid-June, Ford executives laid out plans for hourly worker job cuts with the leadership of the United Auto Workers union, discussing the realities of a declining demand for large vehicles that had once been the backbone of its profits.

(Reporting by David Bailey; editing by Gunna Dickson)