A top-level shake-up at Ford, the world's second largest car maker, today sparked concern among British workers about the fate of their jobs.
Ford's chief executive, Jacques Nasser, is to be replaced by the company's chairman William Clay Ford, the great grandson of the company's founder Henry Ford. Bill Ford, who has a long record as an environmentalist, will be the first member of the Ford family to assume control of the nearly 100-year-old company since his late uncle, Henry Ford II, stepped down as CEO in 1979.
In other changes, British-born Nick Scheele will switch from vice-president North America to chief operating officer.
The move follows reports of serious rifts between Mr Nasser and Mr Ford, and comes shortly after the company reported its first quarterly loss in nearly a decade.
The company has been mired in a dispute with Firestone, the tyre company, following hundreds of deaths and injuries in Ford vehicles equipped with the tyres. Ford has earmarked £1.7bn to pay for recalling 19.5m tyres.
Ford's profits have also been hit by nagging product quality and recall problems, employee and consumer lawsuits, and increased competition at home and abroad.
Uncertainty also pervades the company as it hammers out further details of a restructuring plan, first announced in August, when Ford said it was cutting up to 5,000 white-collar jobs or about 10% of its North American work force.
Mr Nasser, born in Lebanon but brought up in Australia, worked for Ford for more than 30 years. Regarded by colleagues and union officials as a tough negotiator, he was in charge during huge changes in Ford's operation in the UK including the decision to end car production at the huge Dagenham plant in east London next spring.
Mr Scheele briefly worked as head of Ford Euro and was also closely involved in the decision to stop building Fiesta cars at Dagenham.
Roger Lyons, general secretary of the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union said: "We hope the new management set up will help turn around the company's fortunes and will not impact on jobs in this country."
Mr Nasser was known as "Jack the Knife" for the way he cut jobs, especially in the UK. But union officials also spoke fondly of him as he got the knife, saying they respected his ability despite their disagreements over job losses.
Tony Woodley, national officer of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said he was shocked but not surprised at Mr Nasser's departure.
Mr Woodley said: "In spite of his qualities there is no doubt there has been major criticism about the direction the company was going in and the way he had handled the company's losses. He obviously took the knife to car making at Dagenham and tried to do the same at Halewood. But irrespective of those decisions he was an incredibly capable man."
