It wasn't only consumers who paid for all those cushy UAW contracts in the '60s and 70's.

WGAL: Ford To Cut Thousands Of Jobs, Close Plants
Company Will Also Offer Buyouts To All Workers

DETROIT -- Ford says it's cutting 10,000 more of its salaried employees and expanding buyout and early retirement offers to the company's entire U.S. hourly work force of 75,000.

The company said in a news release that it's already cut 4,000 of the salaried positions in the first quarter of this year. Most of the remaining salaried job cuts are to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2007, eliminating a total of about one-third of Ford's salaried positions.

It expects to cut 25,000-to-30,000 manufacturing jobs in North America by 2008, four years ahead of its previous target. Ford also will boost plant closings from seven to nine.

Ford's plan to return the automaker to profitability also includes shutting down a stamping plant in Maumee, Ohio, and an engine plant in Essex, Ontario.

Ford also said it will close an assembly plant in Norfolk, Va., next year, a year earlier than previously announced.

The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan aimed at restoring the troubled No. 2 automaker to profitability. Ford expects its so-called "Way Forward" plan to trim ongoing operating costs by about $5 billion a year.