Ford to trim workforce amid perfect storm of challenges

The company's 'calculated and preemptive strategic realignment' threatens livelihoods and will have a devastating impact on families. By Lindsey Schutters

- By Lindsey Schutters

The news came through trade union channels first, as these things usually do. Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa plans to cut more than 470 jobs at two plants in the country — 391 operator positions at the Ford Silverton Assembly Plant in Pretoria and 73 at the Struandale Engine Plant in Gqeberha, as well as 10 administrative roles scattered across both facilities.

These are, for families like mine, the gradual erosion of a legacy that stretches back decades, to when Ford wasn’t just a job but a way of life.

My late father spent his entire working career with Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa. He worked alongside people like Ockert Berry — now vice president of operations — in building the very production lines that are now being “optimised” through workforce reductions.

A perfect storm

The latest workforce reduction is the collision of three powerful forces that together create what the company calls a “calculated and preemptive strategic realignment” — corporate speak for cutting your way out of trouble before the trouble gets worse.

There was the R21-billion investment over the past five years in automation and advanced manufacturing that has fundamentally altered labour requirements. When you spend more than a billion dollars on robots and automated systems, you inevitably need fewer human hands on the production line. This is the “productivity dividend” that modern manufacturing demands - capital substituting for labour to remain globally competitive.