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Extra11/29/2006 11:28 AM ET

Ford: 38,000 workers to leave

The buyouts represent almost half of the company's U.S. factory work force. The company also announces a $17 billion cash outlay in the next three years.

Ford Motor today said that almost half of the automaker's U.S. factory work force -- a total of 38,000 employees -- had accepted buyout offers to leave the company.

The number includes about 30,000 workers who took the most recent round of buyout offers, which concluded this week, and about 8,000 employees who accepted Ford's (F, news, msgs) earlier plant-by-plant buyout offers.

The buyouts exceed Ford's goal of cutting 30,000 blue-collar jobs in North America by 2008 and exceeds rival General Motors' (GM, news, msgs) similar efforts earlier this year, which resulted in 34,400 workers accepting buyout offers.

Ford in September said it would reduce its North American hourly workforce by 25,000 to 30,000 employees by the end of 2008.

$17 billion cash outlay

The company also said today that it expects to burn through about $17 billion in cash between 2007 and 2009.

More than half of the outflow, which includes automotive operating-related cash outflows of about $10 billion and cash restructuring expenditures of about $7 billion, is expected to happen in 2007, the automaker said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ford said the cash burn mainly reflects the expectation of substantial operating losses in its automotive sector through 2008 and employee separation costs.

Ford shares were up 1.35% at $8.26 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Aiming for profitability

Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker is in the midst of cutting jobs and shutting 16 factories in an attempt to return its North American automotive operations to profitability by 2009.

Ford has reported a loss of nearly $7 billion in the first nine months of this year.

During the most recent round, Ford offered buyouts to all of its nearly 75,000 U.S. factory workers from Oct. 16 to Nov. 27.

Exits begin in January

Hourly employees who accepted the buyouts during that time will begin to leave the company in January 2007, and the process is expected to be completed by September 2007.

Of the 38,000 total acceptances, about 6,000 were by hourly employees at Automotive Component Holdings, a holding company that comprises of former Visteon factories.

The company said the numbers are preliminary, as all buyout offers are voluntary and include an opportunity for workers to rescind acceptance up until the time they leave the company.

By MSN Money staff with wires

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