Ford to open new plant in Mexico

[douglas9]

Source: BBC News

US giant Ford is to invest $3bn (£1.5bn) in a new car plant in Mexico, the biggest investment in the country's manufacturing sector.

The move is a blow to American car workers who had hoped the factory would be built in the United States.

Ford has lost more than $15bn (£7.5bn) over the past two years and says the new facility is crucial to its future.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon hailed the announcement as a "turning point" for his country.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7428952.stm

[Dr.Phool]

1. Buy American!!!!!

USA! USA! USA!

:mad: :puke: :puke: :mad:

It will be a cold day in hell before I buy another Ford.

In the mean-time, Toyota is mulling a Prius plant in California.

[DainBramaged]

2. No, 'Yota is mulling building it's Peeus at the NUNNI-GM joint venture plant

which probably means licensing the Peeus to GM.

Regarding the move by Ford, they can go fuck themselves with a hot axle. Strip America of more manufactuering jobs, build cars in Mexico to sell to America.

I hope the UAW punishes them long and hard, (if Ron Gettmylittlefinger is awake).

[Dr.Phool]

3. I worked for Ford for 2 weeks back in '71.

I was laid off at the railroad at the time. Got laid off at Ford, and thankfully, the railroad called me back the day before Ford did.

[skoalyman]

5. another traitorous company to add

to the long growing list.

[Lorien]

15. My Camry was built in Kentucky. My father once lived near a Honda

plant in Ohio. Brand names have nothing to do with the place of origin anymore.

[DainBramaged]

18. So you think they are American cars?

Where do the profits go? Did you ever stand outside of a Japanese assembly plant and watch all of the containers from California ports disappear inside to be unloaded? Do you think they make the parts for them in America??

How sad you think that they are American cars, how sad.

[fujiyama]

24. The profits go the top anyways

Especially when Ford is shipping jobs overseas, why should I give a fuck whether Mullally is making a few billion or not?

[StarryNite]

25. Exactly!

[Lorien]

28. My very well built, dependable car was made by AMERICAN hands

not Mexican hands. I don't give a crap where the top profits go. Stockholders can live in any country and CEOs in Japan make less than the fat bastards here.

I'm not sad. I'm very happy with my Camry. It's 14 years old and has NEVER had a major repair, unlike my mother's Ford, which was in the fucking shop every three months-until she dumped it for a Camry.

[ingac70]

27. The brand name...

has everything to do with where the profits go.

[Lifetimedem]

17. So what will you buy?

The auto makes are out to break the unions so every car is partially built in other countries with cheap slave wages labor.

Two of Fords cars come out of a local stamping plant 20 miles from my home, so check the paper work on a car to see its point of origin .

One thing they like to do is say "north America" , make them be more specific.

[cstanleytech]

19. I am not sure that would really work well.

Hasn't there been efforts before to have people to buy local made goods only in this and other countries, most of whose efforts failed?
Maybe a goal instead of creating better, cheaper products for us to export to other countries would work better?
Mind you, I am just throwing that idea out there as I am not sure it would work either but *shrug* you know just,,,,,, I thought it might be worth a shot to see if it sinks or swims if you get what I am saying.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

4. Why can't they see that

they lose money because their product is shit - instead of building a good car they think this screwing their workers will be a good move. Nice - now I feel less guilty for buying my Honda that was built in America.

[boomerbust]

6. Are these the jobs...

that Americans are unwilling to do? Checking out the classifieds the other day, the only jobs available are mini mart clerks that pay 7 bucks an hour or temp manufacturing jobs that might get you 8 bucks an hour for a whole lot of sweat equity and no benefits. This country is in trouble!!!

[jmowreader]

10. Well, kinda.

First, welcome to DU.

And second, the "jobs that Americans are unwilling to do" are the ones that used to pay $30/hour with full benefits, and now pay $8 with no benefits. Or worse, jobs where the boss declares all his employees "independent contractors" and pays them $9/hour but they're responsible for all their taxes.

And you know WHY this country is in trouble, right? It's because Ronald Fucking Reagan, the worst disaster to ever hit the United States prior to Shrub, taught the business community labor was the most expensive part of any product, and if they wanted to sell lots and lots of products they should fire all those pesky Americans and ship their jobs to the lowest-wage country they could find. Then everything would be great! (Except for the part about how if they ship all the jobs out of the country no one in the country could afford to buy the stuff...)

[Popol Vuh]

22. Its all relative

Except for the part about how if they ship all the jobs out of the country no one in the country could afford to buy the stuff...

Hi jmowreader.

I have an interesting take on that. That part use to puzzle the hell out of me too until I stopped and thought about it on the point of view of wealth consolidation. It seems as though since money just represents the wealth of goods/services, it doesn't really matter if the working class has jobs which can afford to buy their cheaply made products. On a trade level its important to them to concentrate as much of the 'wealth' into 'their' hands giving 'them' more wealth to trade with for goods/services produced by other businesses. Its basically creating a larger divide between the haves and the have nots. The haves can still trade their wealth amongst each other. So what if the slaves working for them can afford their products or not. To them it makes no differences because they still end up with more of what's important - the wealth of produced goods/services.

Anyway, I am no expert on economics, its just thats what it appears like to me.

[cyclezealot]

7. The Big Three have pretty much implemented the two tier wage structure

and still they are not happy. Until the Minimum wage is lowered to a dollar an hour, their greed with be unabated. .

[ohio2007]

8. Ford's 'Global Car' To Roll Out in Mexico

They will hire more women and exploit them on the basis of sex imo


I'm sure this practice will be noticable at the dealership with less of a sticker shock appears on the window;

Ford's 'Global Car' To Roll Out in Mexico


MEXICO CITY, May 30 -- President Felipe Calderón announced Friday that Ford will build its new fuel-efficient Fiesta "global car" in suburban Mexico City and upgrade two plants here as part of a $3 billion investment, the largest in Mexican history by a foreign manufacturer.

The decision is a major setback for the United Auto Workers union, which has pushed Ford and other manufacturers to invest in U.S. plants. But it was a coup for the Mexican economy after years of losing manufacturing jobs to China and other Asian countries.

Industry analysts have long predicted that Ford would unveil a global car -- a subcompact designed to be easily built and marketed anywhere in the world -- but it was unclear until Friday which country would win the lucrative manufacturing deal. A UAW spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.


snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053002877_pf.html

Union reps know what they are supposed to do but will the Mexican govt deport them when they do show up ?

[jmowreader]

11. Ford won't keep the "global car" for very long

They used to make this car, and it used to be called a Fiesta. You remember the Ford Fiesta. It was a three-seat car--two people in front, and one guy sitting in the back with his feet up because NOTHING could sit normally in the back of a Fiesta. Fucking DOGS couldn't sit normally in the back of a Fiesta. Anyway, they quit selling it in the US because very few people bought one...why buy an imitation Rabbit from Ford that ran shitty and broke down a lot when you could buy a real Rabbit from Volkswagen that worked well for about the same money? (And this was in the era when the Rabbits being sold in the US were built in Pennsylvania.)

So...here we go again. And I note they're calling the Rabbit the Rabbit again. Deja vu all over again.

[AlphaCentauri]

16. It's like the Pinto and the Corolla

corolla was superior in many aspect, especially in fuel consumption.

[bulloney]

9. This comes out only a few days after Ford announced it was cutting production 20%

for the rest of the year.

Is this all part of the plan? Move more production out of the U.S. by using the economy as an excuse to make the move?

Why Mexico? It seems that many of the companies that moved production there in the 1990s have since moved out of that country because it can get done cheaper in China and elsewhere, or some has actually come back to the U.S. because of quality issues in Mexico.

It looks like more of this short-sightedness by U.S. companies. You'd think that current economic conditions would have made them wake up and look beyond their noses. That's the mindset that got them in this situation in the first place. There's little vision on future demands. It's all about making a buck NOW.

[cstanleytech]

20. If they moved out to china

the only reason for ford to choose mexico I can think of off the top of my head might be due to the transportion cost or atleast the thought of it which ford might be considering in the long term.
After all if the price of oil keeps climbing it might make more sense to have the plants in mexico because they could then transport all the stuff to both north and south america cheaper via the railroad.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I don't see why their future should be of any concern to us if they're

not hiring American workers.

This is good for employment in Mexico, of course, but it would be even better if Mexico could develop its own heavy industries. It undoubtedly could if its elites took some money out of their Swiss bank accounts and invested it in their own country.

[whistle]

13. Way to go Ford Motor Company! Also allow UAW to organize in Mexico

...so the Mexican workers can afford to buy the cars they build

[Phred42]

14. Corporate Treason:

FORD won't be one of my options next time I need a vehicle (New or Used)

Phuck Phord

[bronxiteforever]

21. The GOP business model to destroy the US working class is on time/

Time to strip Ford of any US tax breaks. Why fund our economic destruction?

[SpiralHawk]

31. Exactly: another example of anti-American Republiconomics

Ptooey !

[KillCapitalism]

23. But but I thought Mexicans were too expensive to employ.

One day soon I guarantee you'll see the headline that one of the big three is going to open a plant in Khartoum, Sudan.

[ingac70]

26. Great!

Now see how many Mexicans buy new cars, you dozy fucks running Ford!

[sendero]

29. Too bad that..

..... for reasons I don't understand, the quality of cars built in Mexico is very low.

VW went to crap when they started manufacturing there, the Nissans built there are crap also.

I guess these Fords will be even more crap.

[OhioChick]

30. K&R

:kick:

[Psephos]

32. Crocodile tears raining down in this thread

from the eyes of all those who love to hurl invective at the likes of Ford, GM, and Chrysler while tooling around in cars never touched by UAW hands.

Clue: UAW jobs depend on people buying what UAW workers make.

Any "progressive" care to explain to a numbskull like me why it's cool to disparage UAW-built products, buy and drive cars not built by UAW workers, and then indignantly complain about how US automaking jobs are evaporating?