Ford – Geelong Plant Closure Disgrace – Opinion
July 18, 2007 by Paul Maric
*editor’s note* – the article below is simply a rant – an emotional one at that. We understand the need for Ford Australia to move forward and appreciate the views of our readers pointing out that both Holden & Toyota have followed similar paths in the past.
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Ford has today given the final salute – the two finger salute – to 600 Geelong workers and its inline-6 cylinder engine.
Following today’s announcement of the culling of Ford’s inline-6 cylinder engine, to be replaced by an imported V6 motor, it has also become clear that over 600 jobs are in limbo due to the decision.
Ford’s top-hat Tom Gorman plays down the axing of jobs with reassurance of job re-allocation. Although it sounds like an attractive proposition, it totally defies logic and lacks any form of feasibility. Ford expects Geelong based workers to accept re-allocation to other available jobs at its Melbourne based Broadmeadows plant.
Much like most other sane people, the idea of driving one and a half hours per day (per way), or utilising public transport for in excess of two hours per day (per way) will totally defy reasonable logic.
Morale at the Geelong plant will also take a nose dive, workers will show no enthusiasm for work or desire to get jobs done. And who would expect them to? Knowing full well that in two years time they will have no job to speak of.
Despite accepting over $90-million from the Government in the past three years for further fuel efficiency developments and continued support of the Falcon and Territory, Ford will still relinquish the inline-6 cylinder engine.
The whole situation came to fruition due to an article GoAuto produced last week. Had GoAuto not released the article, it would be anyone’s guess when Ford would have told employees about job losses. My guess is that they would have kept it hush hush for as long as possible. The article caught Ford off-guard and it forced their hand to react.
It really is a sad day for the Australian motoring industry and all I can say is – Shame on you Ford! This will ultimately alter Ford’s image and if the soon to be jobless Ford employees have anything to do with it, it may also mean a boycott of the manufacturer’s product.
Print it: 
To Benjie.
Dude, quit while your behind.
Ever heard of press releases. Ford issued one, all the new services did their reports from that with local spin attached.
Thats why they all have similar stuff. All seemed to have ignored the bit where Ford said they were going to be working to transfer as many jobs to other plants, therefore as stated in the press release (did you get it, or did you just make it up from what others reported?) UPTO 600 jobs may be lost in 3 years time. You must have a great crystal ball if you think, everybody will just keep working and stop in 2010, many will now reexamine their lives and look for other opertunities. Ford may have the inverse problem in 18 months, how to retain enough staff to build the I6 for Orion. But whatever happens, this is Ford taking a step forward, finally the Falcon (if it survives globalisation) will not have to deal with all that weight over and ahead of the front wheels. Now if they just got an Alloy V8 they would have a world competitive package.
Superfesa:
You’re the only one so far who is plucking fairy-like arguments from the air.
I have quoted reputable news services to rebut your ridiculous claims of no job losses.
Unless you have a source to quote, the rubbish you’re spouting is hearsay and can only be laughed off.
Hey All,
Call me a hair-splitter, but has anyone actually considered the wording of the news releases?
More importantly the mass media is reporting the loss of “600 JOBS“, this is correct, 600 JOBS will be lost, but this doesn’t mean 600 STAFF. As Ford as stated (and others in this forum) they will be aiming to retain staff in different jobs.
ie: Ford will axe 600 Jobs but try to create new ones to replace them (possibly with the rumored Focus production line). This does not mean Ford will axe 600 staff.
Just my 2c and observation ;)
- DBP
^
Using that logic though it could be less or it could be more…. for eg you have 2 people doing a job then 600 jobs axed, you are going to have more people then 600 axed!!!
As for this, as someone said Ford are doing the right thing, they are a business…. their duty is to their shareholders not to employees (Double edged sword in this sense, keep employees but run losses so shareholders are screwed over or get rid of them so employees screwed over but shareholders benefit). Im sure they are going to do their best, reallocation and Im sure redundancy payouts… but at the end of the day Ford are a business, they are doing whats best for the company.
Exactly DBP. That’s why it annoys me when the media throw around the “600 jobs lost” figure because it’s simply inaccurate. As you said, staff will be relocated to other parts of Ford (be that with the Focus assembly) or to the large new R&D centre setup.
Superfresa said
July 19 2007 @ 8:48 am
“…and it doesn’t prove the engineer’s incompetence – rather, competent management”
Ok so I am just curious how much would it cost to develop the I6 to Euro standards. Give me a figure ?
Or better still get management to shoot it through so we can make a judgement on that one.
Also just another thing that gets on my goat…..why on earth don’t Ford OZ market their products?? Some of the blame has to be lack of marketing. I mean I see dozens of ads on a weekend for, Holden this, or Holden that and nothing from Ford. The only time we see anything from Ford is when they are trying to run out stock because they haven’t been selling. Does anyone remember the original BA advert with the XR6T ??? Where is the imagination ?
Anyway……..
Paul logic defies all logic! Deathbypizza you are spot on ! Thats exactly what Ford are doing and if people get caught up in the media trash and beleive them then they are bigger idiots than the clown who wrote this article! Quote that Paul!=
Forgive me if i am wrong but does’nt the commodore use more fuel than falcon??
Did holden lay a few people off a while ago? or do people for get that?
For some reason i think some of you would like to see ford gone alltogether? The only marketing ford gets these days is all negative! FOR GODS SAKE FORD DO SOMETHING PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
Westy, you are spot on about the lack of advertisement at Ford. Indeed, I fear a large quantity of their products are being ignored by the public. Just the fact that Holden is seen aas a more Australian option than Ford shows that Fords marketing department is lacking.
About the engine, the truth is that I can’t give you a figure – I dont know it off by heart, lol. But its certainly a lot of money (Talking many millions), because it is one of the key points where Allan Mullaly is trying to Globalise Ford in. As posted before, pretty much every succesful manufacturer has a single set of running gear across the globe. So its deffinitely a large figure.
Benjie – I see you’ve set this moment aside to embarass and humilliate yourself in public. Is there anything else you would like to add before we stop laughing at your ignorance and poor attempts to attack anyone who doesn’t agree with you that A Current Affair isn’t the ultimate truth?
IAN, the Commodore has a better fuel consumption than the Falcon on paper. However, The Falcon has consistently returned lower real world figures in tests and from private owners than the commodore – especially the 6 Speed Auto ones.
You are right, Ford should really be working out their marketing, because currently its not working.
280zx, you agree with what Deathbypizza says, and so do I. You then say I’m defying logic. And what am I quoting.
Also, it’s rumoured that $40 Million will cover the upgrade to Euro4.
Superfresa,
So what exactly will cost so much to bring it inline with emissions targets ? Many millions you say but how many millions to start importing the whole engine for every Falcon/Territory and FPV variant ??
Also you said previously ‘..As said before, the I6 is just 50 years old – Its had a very long run! But now its too tall and long to be conveniant packaging-…’
Well I have a bone to pick with that statement. So we are saying because it is 50 years old it isn’t technologically advanced. I seem to remember the old started with pushrods, which the CURRENT Holden V8 still employs, even today!! So the argument about age is redundant.
Finally about Ford having a V6 already there under everyones noses. So we are saying that now if Ford OZ take on board a V6 exports will just fall in their lap. No worries. Orders are backed up ?? They don’t even market the product locally so how will that occur ? They should be paying attention to their local market first and foremost and listening to us. But to get bums on seats you have to have a good marketing platform on which to build up revenue. If no-one sees or hears how great it is, even if it is biased, like Holden ads show, then it is lost like the I6 is forever.
This is a great group of responders. Enjoying the banter. :)
ooops missed a word in my statement…..
I seem to remember the old I6 started with pushrods, which the CURRENT Holden V8 still employs, even today!!
PaulST,
$40 million, that’s nothing in todays terms for engine development. Holden Spent $1 billion on the VE.
Very interesting if it’s true.
Westy, $40 Mill is a lot for a company loosing as much money as Ford (thanks USA). The change to the imported V6 isn’t simply due to not wanting to spend money upgrading the I6, it’s also going to bring a lot of technology to the Falcon (ie. DI, TT, DoD, hybrids, E85) which Ford Aus would have struggled to justify if they were only making 70,000 of them per year as opposed to around 1,000,000 Duratec V6s.
Westy, you’re right there about the Holdens being Pushrod and so on. The problem is that the I6 has several limitations; Its too tall to pass modern pedestrian safety, It’s a long Iron block, so it takes a long time to warm up to working temperature, packaging (As mentioned many times before), and also the Falcon has a PERCEIVED poor fuel economy, as well as lower power outputs than both the alloytech V6 Commodore and the Aurion V6 (Though more torque).
The thing is, why develop two engines when they can develop just one and spend the rest of the money on other things? I mean, they COULD have a V6 engine for America. And another one for Europe. And the I6 for Australia. And another one for Asia. And perhaps another one for South America. And one more for Africa. But why spend $50M on each, if they’re all similar capacity and so on? Its a waste of money. Besides, that sort of redundancies is what has Ford in its financial situation. Think about it – they have the Falcon platform, the Mustang platform, the Crown vic, the Taurus, and so on. Meanwhile, Toyota had The Camry. Full stop. How could they remain competitive by having so many cars of the same size and so on? Its the same with the engine. And as PaulST said, you gain a lot of new technologies with that too, and save money which could be invested, for example, in developing new safety technologies, or dedicated to a LHD conversion for export…
Moving to V6 wont guarantee exports, But sticking to the I6 pretty much guarantees that exports wont happen…
BTW, yeah thanks for the discussion ;) Comes to show that its better to discuss than to childishly accuse others of being fan-bois when you dont agree ;)
Some great points being debated, and I couldn’t agree more in relation to the lack-lustre marketing of Ford products, let alone the apalling dealer backup they offer. In fact I’d say that the level of service you get at Ford dealerships is probably a bigger issue than anything as to why people are choosing other brands, but I guess that’s another topic for another time.
So not to stray to far from this topic, in my opinion (and at the risk of sounding repetitive) there should be some assessment of the aggressive tariff reduction policy, to ensure we don’t cut our nose off to spite our face, and continue to overpressure our local manufacturing industry.
Finally it appears that at some levels of government there is a similar awakening. From this news story http://carsguide.news.com.au/s.....22,00.html, the following quote actually makes some sense…
“Victorian Premier Steve Bracks urged the Howard Government to reconsider its planned 5 per cent tariff reduction on imported cars, due in 2010, in an effort to help the domestic car market.
“We believe, if you look at what’s happening worldwide, where we don’t see the concurrent reduction in the tariff barriers of other countries, that there is a strong case to put to have a pause on that tariff reduction and to not implement that by 2010,” he said.
We’ve already lost our iconic Oz Ford I6, and I’d hate to see Australia lose the likes of the falcon/commodore based on loose government policy. Take a look around the world and see if other countries are reducing their barriers before we do the same. Why must Australia be the first to drop it’s skirt?
Some great points being debated, and I couldn’t agree more in relation to the lack-lustre marketing of Ford products, let alone the apalling dealer backup they offer. In fact I’d say that the level of service you get at Ford dealerships is probably a bigger issue than anything as to why people are choosing other brands, but I guess that’s another topic for another time.
So not to stray to far from this topic, in my opinion (and at the risk of sounding repetitive) there should be some assessment of the aggressive tariff reduction policy, to ensure we don’t cut our nose off to spite our face, and continue to overpressure our local manufacturing industry.
Finally it appears that at some levels of government there is a similar awakening. From this news story http://carsguide.news.com.au/s…..2,00.html, the following quote actually makes some sense…
“Victorian Premier Steve Bracks urged the Howard Government to reconsider its planned 5 per cent tariff reduction on imported cars, due in 2010, in an effort to help the domestic car market.
“We believe, if you look at what’s happening worldwide, where we don’t see the concurrent reduction in the tariff barriers of other countries, that there is a strong case to put to have a pause on that tariff reduction and to not implement that by 2010,” he said.
We’ve already lost our iconic Oz Ford I6, and I’d hate to see Australia lose the likes of the falcon/commodore based on loose government policy. Take a look around the world and see if other countries are reducing their barriers before we do the same. Why must Australia be the first to drop it’s skirt?
wow i hadnt been here for 24 hours and it seems like it took me 2hrs to read all this. i forget who said what now.
i feel the real reason behind this is globalisation.
dont give me fuel consumption
dont give me large car sales slump
dont give me out dated motor stuff
all this stuff is just a smoke screen to help those who dont know much about life to find reason.
i have a fat $50 on the new V6 not being any better on fuel consumption. just take a look at holden and toyota. the 4.0l inline gives same consumption as the 3.5L toyota V6.
i do know who wrote this one though….
Paul, i love the way you always try to find/put a negative spin on anything that is not toyota.
DeathByPizza points out that it doesnt mean 600 people get sacked as it states “job losses” what it could be worded as is position losses. cause paul lets not assume that 1 person is classified as doing half a job meaning its actually 1200 people/positions, that would be silly now wouldnt it
my thoughts,
i can see why this is being done as it makes very good business sence.
its just a shame to see one of the best motors go
remember this
Most torque out of a 6 in the world
Most torque out of a 6 or 8 in Australia
Torque has been fords standout trademark. its also a shame that the falcon will have to blend into the crowd.
i have seen the torque stats on the twin force V6 and it still doesnt match what the typhoon has.
oh yeah i think people should stop believing the media. the breaking headline had to read “600 sacked shame on ford” to grab peoples attention. because “ford restructure their operations” would have been lucky to surface to page 30. people just love to find the negativity.
very well said by most people!!!
9 years ago wheels ran a story that the falcon would be killed off by the next model change. To be replaced by the taurus. Its failure against the ef/el falcon at the time saved the falcon. But the writing has been on the wall for a long time. Look at Holden in the 80s it was bankrupt until GM pulled it out. That will not happen now for either Ford or Holden, their US owners are now in debt so if either run anyting at a loss they will just be shut down. It will be a sad day when the l6 stops production but if Ford needs to cut off dead limbs to stay alive so be it. At least we will still have an aus Falcon and maybe it will be sold like the VE to other countries. It is needed so the other Ford jobs can continue, dont forget Ford may assemble the v6 here so not all is lst just yet.
Andrew M, are you referring to me or another Paul?
PaulST, I was confused too, but I think he’s refering to, just “Paul”, who posted earlier on (scroll up ;))
Ford is now rumoured to be stopping opperations in Thailand – I guess with the Ranger being moved to being developed in Australia, they can do without the Thailand division. As you can see, losing the I6 engine is the least of what could’ve happened…
yep, this website has really gone to shit
sorry alborz
Looks like the kids are back saying the same shyite.
Sorry guys, I was wrong. I was mislead by the amateur article by these inexperienced writers at CarAdvice. Perhaps in the future, they will write more thought out articles that ignorant people like me follow like blind sheep. I can actually admit that I am ignorant. I blame Caradvice.
I had a previous entry stating this, but the editors deleted it. This site is crap.
It must be the school holidays, people imitating me with foul language and misleading statements are far from amusing.
Even if Ford continued to develop the I6, they’d be competing globally with not only Ford’s global Duratec V6, but also Volvo’s range of I5 and I6 engines displacing 2.5-3.2L and also featuring turbo technology.
The European manufacturers are switching onto this, and the rest of the world will soon follow. These large displacement engines, or even engines of all displacements, are going to be phased out for smaller, supercharged/turbocharged engines that are more efficient, especially when driven sedately.
kids these days!
with the 4.4 v6 turbo diesel in u.s 248kw and 698nm i know its gonna be good.
That’s true Jacob and I wholeheartedly agree, but at the end of the day 600 people will be left without jobs.
That figure is also understated when you take into account all the suppliers for the I6 engine – which there were plenty of.
As with everyone else, I want to see the success of Ford, but feel ashamed that they have flicked so many people.
Life does go on but, meh, I just don’t feel good about a company I have loved for such a long time giving so many devoted and long-serving employees the can.
These job losses arent something in the immediate short term though. Of course its never a good thing for it to happen, but its a fact of life – especially in the motor industry.
** NOT DISGRACE!! **
300 new jobs at Ford
Good on them!
http://www.theage.com.au/news/.....89026.html
[Everybody now say sorry to FOMOCO]
F-O
Press release: http://www.fordaustraliaforums.....hp?t=25595
Ford Australia’s announcement that the Focus will be built here in Australia must be slightly embarrassing for you Benjie? Especially since you criticized others for suggesting that an announcement was only days away.
Back to class mate.
front page news here now :D
Havent you heard ? These people still have jobs for the next 3 years..they have not been sacked. In this time they have plenty of time to find other jobs inside or outside of Ford. Maybe they can even improve their skills in this time and get a better job?? With the Focus being bult here 300 jobs in Melbourne and who knows how many in the stamping plant in Geelong. Ford have to re-align themelves in a world market or they will go out of business. Eveyone must go through change so these 600 people have 3 years to decide what they want to do. Holden sacked 600 people and gave them 2 weeks notice…………Ford gave 3 years.
I hope events like this make people realise that buying products made in australia is very important. Isnt it better to have jobs than to save $5 a week in petrol?
This is the most pungent piece of crap I have ever in my life heard of. What a sorry bunch of people you guys are. The very first comment made by Ford Employee is completely correct. Put yourself in the shoes of heads of Ford Australia. How would you like to have the information handed to you that if the I6 engine was to continue production longer then X amount of time, you could bankrupt entirely!?
It’s not something I particularly like to see, I really do feel sad for all the people that have lost their jobs in Geelong. But thats the way life is… And it is no one’s fault at Ford, its the general public for not supporting the only Australian built engine left.
So before you go blaming the people that had to make the necessary decisions at Ford, think hard about who really is to blame.
I would also like to point out, that should anything really bad happen to Ford over here, the Ford USA, SVT, Prodrive, Mazda, Volvo, Lincoln, Landrover, Mercury and Jaguar would stick their necks out to help. As much as some of you people don’t like it, we are actually friends with the “yanks”.