Logistics Management 24

FORD GENK 10,000 jobs. While I see some union member in the extra news broadcast standing on his hind legs to turn the tide, it is mainly the dizzying figure that tries to get through to me. “A social bloodbath that will claim even more victims than the closure of the mines”, I still half-heartedly catch. Exactly 50 years after the first spade of earth was dug – happy birthday, Ford Genk – the Ford management is pulling the plug on the factory that was mainly supposed to bring prosperity to the Limburg working class. Prosperity, goodbye. That the American Ford management would combat the European overcapacity and the arduous wage costs with a blunt axe had been written in the stars for some time. Coincidentally, I recently read a book about the global rescue operation that Ford has been implementing for several years now. The austerity measures even went so far that the plants in the headquarters in Detroit had to do without water (!). Incidentally, it was precisely Ford's tough approach that ensured that the company (unlike GM and Chrysler, the other two of the 'Big Three') managed to keep its head above water without having to resort to the notorious Chapter 11. In an attempt to save what could be saved, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Mazda were thrown out without any fuss, and Ford closed a number of factories worldwide. Bitter pills that helped Ford to an operating profit of almost 9 billion dollars last year. The worst suffering is over, you would think. Until a new bomb fell on October 24, 2012. On Genk.