Ford delays its buyout offers to hourly workers...

Ford Motor Co. has delayed the rollout of voluntary buyout offers to thousands of hourly workers in southeast Michigan, who had been expecting the deals to be offered earlier in the month.

Joe Hinrichs, Ford's group vice president for global manufacturing and labor affairs, disclosed the delay Tuesday during a media event at Michigan Truck Plant, where Ford is spending $75 million to retool the plant to build smaller cars instead of large trucks.

Michigan Truck, which employs 1,000 workers, currently builds the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs, which have plummeted in popularity because of rising gas prices and the soft U.S. economy.

Hinrichs said Ford still hopes to offer the buyouts soon, but held off on the offers for better communication. Many of the workers are not in the plants right now, because of temporary production shutdowns. The company, he also noted, has not yet finalized all the offer details with the UAW.

"They are coming," Hinrichs said of the buyouts.

Nick Kottalis, the president/plant chairman for UAW Local 600 at Dearborn Truck, said many workers are eager to sign up. "We're just waiting," he said.

Ford had said in July that targeted buyouts were coming to a variety of local plants, including Michigan Truck Plant, Wayne Stamping & Assembly, Woodhaven Stamping, Livonia Transmission, Sterling Axle, Romeo Engine, Rawsonville Plant and Auto Alliance International in Flat Rock.

Ford, which has already shed 39,500 hourly workers in North America since 2005, has not said how many of its remaining 61,000 hourly workers it would like to shed.

However, Ford needs to reduce its workforce and preserve as much cash as possible as it transitions to build more of the cars that consumers want during one of the most challenging economies in more than a decade.

Shares of Ford closed at $4.35 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. That's down 6 cents or 1.4% from Monday, and close to historic lows.