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Ford, UAW reach deal on Focus plant
BY BRENT SNAVELY and CHRISSIE THOMPSON Ford and the UAW have reached a tentative local agreement that would allow the automaker to build the 2012 Ford Focus compact car profitably at Michigan Assembly Plant without a second-tier wage rate like the one announced earlier this week at a General Motors subcompact car plant.
The tentative deal for Michigan Assembly was confirmed by Bill Johnson, a UAW Local 900 plant chairman, but it depends on reaching a deal at a nearby stamping plant.
"Right now, we are not talking about wages," UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles told the Free Press on Friday during an event where Ford CEO Alan Mulally was given the Edward H. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award. "There are many ways to create efficiencies without looking at wages," Settles noted.
Domestic automakers have struggled for years to make a profit off of small cars built in the U.S., largely because their relatively low prices don't fully cover the cost to build them here. The smaller and lower priced the car, the more challenging that is.
Earlier this week, union workers at General Motors' Orion Township plant said the company and UAW had agreed to allow 40% of the workforce there to be paid a second-tier wage of about $14 an hour.
The move allowed the plant to stay open and helped to preserve 1,500 jobs. What's more, it could prove that it's possible for a subcompact car to be built profitably in the U.S. The Chevrolet subcompact cars to be built at the Orion plant will be the smallest cars built in the U.S.
GM has already started building the larger Chevrolet Cruze compact car at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, without a deal like the one in Orion.
UAW officials describe the Orion agreement as a onetime deal forged during GM's bankruptcy to save a plant that was slated to close, as well as jobs, and to prove that subcompacts can be built profitably with American union labor.
But some workers were angered by the deal. A protest against the agreement is scheduled for next Saturday, said Ron Lare, a retired Ford autoworker.
Some consolidation
At Michigan Assembly, where Ford is determined to make money from the Focus compact car, the new agreement calls for a consolidation of some job classifications and changes to how maintenance work groups are structured, Johnson said.
Ford and the UAW needed to negotiate a new local contract with UAW Local 900 because Ford plans to transfer about 2,100 workers from its Wayne Assembly Plant, where it builds the current version of the Focus, to Michigan Assembly, which is next door.
Ford is spending $550 million to convert the plant, previously called Michigan Truck, from one that built the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator into a car plant. The UAW plans to take the contract to its members for a vote once it reaches a tentative deals at Wayne Integral Stamping, Johnson said. He expects that will happen by early November.
Converting plants
On Friday, Mulally said Ford's national contracts with the UAW helped to pave the way for small cars to be made profitably in the U.S.
In 2007, the UAW and all domestic automakers agreed to a second-tier wage of about $14 per hour for newly hired workers, allowing existing workers to continue to earn about $28 per hour.
"We are converting truck plants to car plants and making cars in the U.S. profitably," Mulally said after getting his award. Settles, who introduced Mulally at the Old Newsboys' Goodfellows breakfast, said Mulally "wanted to make certain that jobs grow here in the U.S., and in particular, here in Michigan." |