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Ford to offer buyout deals to 54,000 workers

By Times Wires
Published January 24, 2008

DETROIT

Ford Motor Co. is expected to offer a new round of buyouts to all of its 54,000 U.S. hourly workers, a move that could trim thousands of jobs and pave the way for lower-wage replacements. Details of the buyouts were expected as early as today, when Ford releases its 2007 results. Jim Stoufer, president of UAW Local 249, which represents 4,300 workers at Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo., said he was told the buyout terms would be similar to those offered in 2006. Under that program, hourly workers were offered eight packages ranging from $35,000 to $140,000, including one that offered up to $15,000 per year for four years of college tuition.

MIAMI

Insurer accused of Haitian bias

A life insurance company previously sued for discriminatory policies against blacks is now accused of bias against three Haitian-Americans, who were asked leading questions about their foreign travel plans or called by underwriters listening for a "Haitian" accent, according to a federal lawsuit. The class-action lawsuit by three policyholders alleges that since 2004, Liberty National Life Insurance Co. has denied policies "based solely on the applicant's race and Haitian ancestry, ethnicity and national origin," or replaced them with policies normally only sold to the terminally ill.

BOSTON

IBM to cut salaries for support staff

International Business Machines Corp. will cut the base salaries of 7,600 technical-support workers, or about 6 percent of its U.S. work force. IBM is reducing compensation because the workers are now eligible for overtime pay, spokesman Fred McNeese said. The changes, which take effect next month, are necessary to prevent cost increases for IBM's customers, he said.

[Last modified January 24, 2008, 00:43:17]