Reply #11: Workers Wrestle With the Future at Ford [View All]

DETROIT (AP) - Scott Swiercz smoked a cigarette and drank a beer at The Final Score lounge, mulling the biggest gamble of his life.

Ford Motor Co. had offered him and its 75,000 other U.S. hourly workers a choice of buyout packages. One option: A $100,000 lump sum payment to completely sever his relationship with Ford. Taking the money would mean no job and no health care. For Swiercz, 40, who has two ex-wives and pays $157.50 each week in child support for his 14-year-old son, taking the buyout would be the equivalent of a third divorce. The math just didn't work.

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For hourly workers at Ford, making a decision on the buyout offers required a combination of economic calculations and soul searching. Some 38,000 Ford workers -- roughly half of Ford's U.S. hourly work force -- said they would take one of Ford's eight buyout packages. Workers can rescind their acceptance until their last day of work. Those who do go will start leaving the company in January, the rest will be gone by September.

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