Ford Plant Closings

Today, CNN/Money.com reports that Ford Motor Co. is planning to close up to 10 pleants and cut 25,000-30,000 jobs across North America. The restructuring is likely to happen over the next 5 years. The Detroit Newws is quoting people familiar with the plan that the proposal is to be presented to the board of directors today, Dec. 7th. However, it will not be revealed to the public until January 23rd.

The current proposal is much worse than earlier reports. The initial restructuring only had up to 3 plants shutting down and 7000 employees losing jobs. The paper reports that up to 7 of Ford's top executives will depart due to the shakeups in upcoming weeks.

The amount of cuts that Ford is planning is comparable to the closures GM has made. GM is planning to close 12 North American facilities and eliminate approximately 30,000 jobs.
The article states through the first 9 months in 2004, Ford's pretax profits had fallen 1.8 billion, 2.2 through first 9 months in 2005. What future problems will this lead to for Ford Motor Co. Why are profits down so much over the past few years?