Ford's decision to skip a federal bailout certainly hasn't hurt sales but left the balance sheet weak.
Ford Motor Company will bring in-house by 2012 about 1,975 hourly jobs that would have been performed by suppliers inside and outside of the U.S. , the number two Detroit maker said this morning.
Ford said it can add what will be United Auto Workers spots into Ford’s U.S. plants thanks to “collaboration with the union” to make its plants more competitive and efficient through modern labor agreements.
Translation: Ford has started hiring some workers again at $14 an hour, half of the rate previously, under a new “two-tier” wage system agreed to in 2007.
Industry observers remain concerned about Ford’s balance sheet, which is carrying more than $25 billion in debt that wasn’t wiped out because it did not declare bankruptcy last year when GM and Chrysler did so.
Job Creation?
“The name of the game is competitiveness, and our UAW partners have found new ways of working together on labor agreements that allow us to bring jobs back to Ford plants and back to America,” said Mark Fields, president of The Americas, who is speaking today at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City.
The initial commitment three years ago with the UAW called for 1,559 jobs to be “in-sourced” to Ford hourly workers throughout the four-year term of the current contract. Ford already has brought 1,340 jobs into 24 U.S. plants and has committed to bring another 635 to nine Ford plants in the U.S. by 2012.
The jobs will be filled by current laid off workers as well as new hires.
“Could there be more? We’ll look at it,” Fields said.
Ford claimed it committed to in-source jobs to the majority of its assembly, powertrain and stamping facilities around the country, including the:
- Sharonville (Ohio) Transmission Plant for 6F35 automatic transmission gear machining and solenoid body assembly
- Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., for moon roof sub-assembly, instrument panel assembly and part kitting for engine, doors and interior trim for the company’s new Ford Focus, arriving in dealerships this winter
- Chicago Stamping Plant for a variety of stamped parts for the Lincoln MKS and Ford Taurus, as well as for next generation Ford Explorer
- Sterling Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., for global production of the Rear Drive Unit for Ford’s front-wheel drive products
- Van Dyke Transmission Plant in Sterling Heights for production of the 6F35 automatic transmission and HF35 electric drive transaxle. The work is currently performed by a supplier in Japan
- Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., for battery pack assembly for next-generation hybrid-electric vehicles. The work is currently performed by a supplier in Mexico.