U.S. plants to stay open during life of tentative deal

Ford is backing away from plans to close two
assembly plants.

DETROIT (AP) — The tentative four-year contract between Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers keeps all U.S. assembly plants open during its life, according to two people familiar with the deal.

As part of its restructuring plan, Ford was to close two more car or truck assembly factories by 2012, but no such closures will take place through the contract, which expires in 2011, said the people. Both requested anonymity because details of the contract have not yet been explained to union members.

Among Ford’s assembly plants is a plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, that employs about 2,600 workers.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and his top bargainers were to meet with local union leaders Monday in Dearborn to explain the agreement, reached at 3:20 a.m. Saturday after a bargaining session that lasted more than 40 hours.

About 54,000 UAW members at Ford will vote on the historic pact starting this week, with some workers skeptical of its job security guarantees in light of layoffs that Chrysler LLC announced shortly after workers there ratified a new contract with the company.

The impact of the contract on Ford powertrain and stamping plants was unclear Monday, but industry analysts have speculated that five U.S. Ford assembly plants were among those in danger of being among the two closed by the company.

Ford already had announced plans to shut down 16 North American factories as part of a restructuring. The company has identified only 10 of the closures, and two of the remaining six to be shuttered were to be assembly plants.

Among the closures are three in Ohio — a transmission plant in Batavia near Cincinnati, a stamping plant in Maumee near Toledo that closed last month and a casting plant in Brook Park near Cleveland. Ford also plans to idle an engine plant in Cleveland for a year.

But one of the people with knowledge of the deal said Wayne Assembly; Michigan Truck in Dearborn; Louisville, Ky.; Chicago; and Avon Lake, Ohio, plants will remain open through the contract and some will get additional investment for future products. Analysts have said another assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, also was up for possible closure. That plant is not covered by the UAW deal because workers there are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers.

Added investment in the U.S. plants is contingent on agreement by the company and union on local deals to make or keep the plants competitive with Japanese rivals, the person said.

Ford has stabilized its retail market share at around 13 percent and plans additional products to be built in the U.S. during the next four years, one of the people said.

In exchange for the investments, Ford will be allowed to pay lower wages to thousands of new hires, a provision already agreed to in contracts with General Motors Corp. and Chrysler.

Ford has said the deal allows it to move its estimated $22 billion in retiree health care obligations to a union-run trust. The company did not say how much it will have to contribute to the trust. GM and Chrysler have similar agreements in their contracts.

The contract may face a tough ratification vote at Ford because of Chrysler’s announcement Thursday, less than a week after union ratification of its new four-year contract, that it would lay off 8,500 to 10,000 hourly workers and eliminate shifts at five North American assembly plants, including a shift at its Toledo, Ohio, assembly plant.

And shortly after GM’s deal was ratified, that company announced it would cut shifts at three plants, affecting 1,700 jobs.