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Ford Is Pushing Buyouts to Workers

WOODHAVEN, Mich. — Ford is applying the hard sell these days — piling on incentives, doling out marketing DVDs and brochures, and making offers it hopes are too good to pass up, according to The New York Times.

But Ford’s big new push is not to sell cars. Instead, it is trying to sign up thousands of workers to take buyouts, partly by convincing them that their brightest future lies outside the company that long offered middle-class wages for blue-collar jobs.

So, Ford is pitching a buffet of buyout packages that are easily among the richest ever offered to factory workers, including one-time cash payments of $140,000 or college tuition plans for an entire family.

The automaker is also putting on job fairs in its plants and mailing each of its 54,000 hourly workers a feature-length DVD, titled “Connecting With Your Future,” that extols the promise of new careers beyond the assembly line.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:33 PM to Ford | Permalink | Comments 0

Nissan Murano Gets Top Rating in SUV Crash Tests

AP photo / Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

DETROIT -- The 2009 Nissan Murano was the best performer in new crash tests of midsize sport utility vehicles, while the Hummer H3 had one of the poorest showings, according to results released Tuesday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, according to the Associated Press.

The institute, which is funded by the insurance industry, said the redesigned Murano was the only vehicle among the nine tested to get the highest rating in front, side and rear crash tests.

It praised Nissan Motor Co. for making electronic stability control standard on the 2009 Murano. The system, which helps prevent swerving, was an option on previous models.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 1:32 PM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0