It's True Ford Cancels Computers To Employees Program

DETROIT, Oct 19 Reuters reported that the Ford Motor Co. , in a sign of its changing fortunes, said on Friday that it was canceling plans to equip all of its employees with free personal computers and printers.

The program, dubbed Model E, was billed as a breakthrough achievement in the history of corporate America when it was announced in February 2000 by Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., whose great-grandfather pioneered the assembly line and brought the world the Model T automobile.

But Ford spokesman Peter Olsen said the company sent out an e-mail Friday to its nearly 346,000 employees worldwide, notifying them the days of the great computer giveaway were over.

``Under today's very difficult economic environment that we find ourselves in, we unfortunately have to cancel the program,'' Olsen told Reuters.

He said about 166,000 Ford workers, mostly in the United States, had already received personal computers and printers at Ford's expense, along with Internet access for a cut-rate monthly fee of $5.00.

In announcing the Model E program, Ford's chairman said it was based on the idea, ``the Internet will be the equivalent of the moving assembly line of the 21st Century.''

The world's second-largest automaker has rolled back on several electronic business ventures since the Internet bubble burst on Wall Street, however. And management clearly questioned the benefits of having a ``wired'' work force, at a time when Ford is suffering from the auto industry slowdown and fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The company, which halved its dividend earlier this month, reported its first back-to-back quarterly loss since 1992 Wednesday. It is currently hammering out the details of a broad restructuring plan, under which it plans to cut up to 5,000 white-collar jobs, or about 10 percent of its North American work force.

Olsen said Hewlett-Packard Co. supplied the computers and printers Ford purchased for the Model E program. He said he was unable to comment on the program's cost.