Inside Track: Buyout offers at Ford ignored

Heck no. We won't go.

That was the theme at the Ford Ranger truck plant in St. Paul last month as eligible union workers snubbed Ford's latest attempt to shrink its workforce with generous buyout offers ranging from $50,000 to $140,000, depending on the separation package.

Only four to six workers applied for the buyout out of about 240 eligible production workers, said Roger Terveen, president of United Auto Workers Local 879. There are only 980 workers left in the plant, after buyouts in 2006 and the shutdown of the night shift.

In another dose of the unexpected, some truck lovers shunned Ford's large gas guzzlers for the small Ranger truck, prompting an 8 percent spike in the Ranger's March sales. It was a morale-booster for workers who face a plant closing next year.

March Ranger sales rose 7.9 percent from a year ago to 8,620 units. Sales of the light truck rose 24 percent in February. Sales have picked up steam thanks to the falling U.S. dollar, rising demand in Canada and high fuel costs.

For years, America's love affair with large trucks drove sales and profit, as Ford sold millions of its F-series vehicles.

But in March, F-series truck sales fell 24 percent from a year ago to 54,465 units. And Ford's "heavy" trucks fell 52 percent to just 621 units.

Minneapolis consulting firm Personnel Decisions Inc. has launched a new website -- www. NextNationalCEO.com -- which lets users rate each presidential candidate on the same characteristics the company uses to assess CEOs at Fortune 100 companies. Those characteristics include: trustworthiness, vision, courage and energy. (We know, one can always hope.)

For the past 40 years, PDI has helped boards choose CEOs for large companies, so it makes sense the same ranking system would work for president. As PDI executive Bob Muschewske says, the next U.S. president will likely be one of the most powerful CEOs in the world.

Website users can rank each candidate on desirable characteristics, and then rate the importance of each trait. Then they can instantly view results and compare candidates.

Somebody had the right climate in mind at ATEK Companies when the Minneapolis-based firm chose Heredia, Costa Rica, for a new $750,000 manufacturing facility.

The plant, in a trade-free zone near San Jose International Airport, will make single-use and disposable devices, as well as sophisticated implantable devices. The company supplies cardiovascular, gynecologic, urologic, orthopedic, spinal and emerging technologies markets.

ATEK says the Central American country has developed a strong medical device manufacturing sector in the past decade.

DEE DEPass, Janet Moore