Ford may cut up to 2,000 jobs
Detroit: Ford Motor is said to be contemplating cutting as many as 2,000 white-collar jobs worldwide as part of the company's plan to cut salaried employee costs by 10 per cent.

It was not clear how many jobs would be affected by this cost-cutting plan, as the company began negotiations with the United Auto Workers for a new contract and permission to close two US assembly plants and cut thousands of union jobs.

Sources said most of the job reductions would come from its 45,000 salaried employees in Ford's operations in North America. These include managers, engineers and other executives.

Worldwide, Ford has 79,000 salaried employees. A reduction of 2,000 would represent about 2.5 per cent of the worldwide white-collar work force.
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Volkswagen to lay off 4, 000 in Brazil
Sao Paolo: Volkswagen will lay off about 4,000 people from its 24,800-member work at its Brazil plant owing to a slump in car sales, which has led to excess capacity at its five Brazilian factories.

Brazilian car sales slipped 8 percent during the first half of 2003. Volkswagen was the country's third largest automaker after General Motors Corp. and Fiat during the period.

However in a silver lining of sorts the laid off workers will be transferred to a new firm created by Volkwagen called ``Autovisao Brasil,'' Portuguese for Autovision Brazil.
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