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Ford's New Jersey Workers Earn Record Profit Sharing Averaging $8,000

28 January 2000

Ford Motor Company's New Jersey Workers Earn Record Profit Sharing Averaging $8,000

    EDISON, N.J., Jan. 27 -- Hourly employees at Ford Motor
Company's Edison Assembly Plant will receive record profit-sharing
payments for 1999, averaging $8,000 each.  In total, Ford's New Jersey plant
will distribute approximately $12 million to 1,500 eligible employees on March
3.
    "We at Edison are proud to be part of the team that helped keep Ford
Division America's top-selling automotive brand once again last year," Plant
Manager Susan Baska said in announcing the profit-sharing award.  "The record
North American earnings and revenue that Ford Motor Company reported yesterday
are in no small part due to the skill and dedication of hourly employees here
at Edison, represented by UAW Local 980."
    The Edison plant assembles Ford Ranger and Mazda compact pickup trucks.
The Ranger has been the best-selling compact-pickup truck for 13 years in a
row, and last year saw record sales of 348,358 in the United States.  The
Ranger is also assembled in St. Paul, Minn.
    Throughout the country, profit-sharing payments will be made to
approximately 109,000 people.  The amount surpasses the former record payout
of $6,100 for 1998.
    This will be the 14th payment made under the company's Profit Sharing Plan
since it was first agreed to by Ford and the UAW in 1982.  The total of these
averages comes to $40,575 for those 14 payments.
    In 1999, for the first time, only hourly workers will be covered under the
company's Profit Sharing Plan.  Salaried employees will be compensated through
the Performance Bonus Plan, which went into effect in January 1999.  Awards
under that plan will be distributed under a similar timetable.

    Note: Planes will be flying today across the Detroit area, carrying
banners that thank employees for a record year.  AP is expected to carry
photo.