Ford to slash 1,100 jobs, close plant in Windsor
By GREG KEENAN
Monday, September 12, 2005 Updated at 7:57 PM EDT
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. will eliminate 1,100 jobs in Canada during the next three years and close a plant in Windsor, Ont., in a deal with the Canadian Auto Workers that union president Buzz Hargrove says provides the lowest wage increases since the CAW was created in 1987.
"I describe it as a modest agreement, but a good agreement for tough times," Mr. Hargrove told reporters yesterday afternoon after the tentative three-year agreement was signed.
"This was a company that was losing market share and was forced to restructure."
Ford's workers will receive annual wage increases of about 1.5 per cent in the first year of the new contract and roughly 1 per cent in each of the second and third years.
The agreement — which sets a pattern for Ford's competitors DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc. and General Motors of Canada Ltd. to match — is in stark contrast to 2002, when the CAW won annual wage increases of 3 per cent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent, a signing bonus, a Christmas bonus and an extra 28 days off a year.
There's no signing bonus and no increase in time off in this deal, but the Christmas bonus will continue.
Ford will close its Windsor casting plant in 2007, which will wipe out 530 jobs.
x Another 600 jobs will disappear at the nearby Essex engine plant, which is fed by the Windsor casting operation.
Those cuts will reduce Ford's overall CAW employment in Ontario to an estimated 10,500 by 2008 from about 11,600 CAW members today, Mr. Hargrove said.
Stacey Allerton Firth, Ford Canada's vice-president of human resources, would not confirm the specific numbers, but acknowledged there will be job cuts. "We are going to do everything we can to minimize the impact of those job reductions on our employees.
"It's pretty challenging times, and we find ourselves in a fiercely competitive environment particularly in North America. We're in a position where we have to realign our manufacturing capacity with the current marketplace realities that we're facing," she said.
The union won a promise from the company to build a new engine for the threatened Essex engine plant once V6 production is phased out there in 2007-08. But the new engine will provide jobs for only about 400 people, compared with 1,500 now.
Ford also agreed to invest $200-million at its assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont., to refresh its Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis full-sized cars and to keep that plant open for the next three years.
"That's a major victory for St. Thomas," Mr. Hargrove said, noting that it was rumoured to be on the hit list in a Ford restructuring that will be announced in several weeks and is expected to include the closing of assembly plants in St. Louis, Mo., St. Paul, Minn., and Wixom, Mich.
Union negotiators were able to save both the Essex engine plant in Windsor and the St. Thomas Assembly Plant in St. Thomas, Ont., and its 2,700 jobs.
"He's done very well," said Sean McAlinden, who watches the Canadian talks closely as director of the economics and business group of the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ford's in the worst shape of the Big Three."
The union also agreed to a three-year pension deal for the first time ever, an abandonment of a long-standing CAW principle that pension agreements last six years, not three years like the rest of the contract.
All three auto makers insisted on the change, Mr. Hargrove said.
"They've had that demand since 1987 and they were a little more aggressive this time," he said.
Mr. Hargrove wants the CAW to turn its attention now to DaimlerChrysler, which has already notified the union that it wants to close its casting plant in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, Mr. Hargrove told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday.
That move would wipe out about 440 jobs and leave that auto maker with no parts-making operations in Canada.
The union is expected to leave negotiations with GM until last. GM has stated publicly that it needs an agreement that freezes overall labour costs.
The decision on which company to tackle next could come later this week, Mr. Hargrove said.
By GREG KEENAN
Monday, September 12, 2005 Updated at 7:57 PM EDT
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. will eliminate 1,100 jobs in Canada during the next three years and close a plant in Windsor, Ont., in a deal with the Canadian Auto Workers that union president Buzz Hargrove says provides the lowest wage increases since the CAW was created in 1987.
"I describe it as a modest agreement, but a good agreement for tough times," Mr. Hargrove told reporters yesterday afternoon after the tentative three-year agreement was signed.
"This was a company that was losing market share and was forced to restructure."
Ford's workers will receive annual wage increases of about 1.5 per cent in the first year of the new contract and roughly 1 per cent in each of the second and third years.
The agreement — which sets a pattern for Ford's competitors DaimlerChrysler Canada Inc. and General Motors of Canada Ltd. to match — is in stark contrast to 2002, when the CAW won annual wage increases of 3 per cent, 3 per cent and 2 per cent, a signing bonus, a Christmas bonus and an extra 28 days off a year.
There's no signing bonus and no increase in time off in this deal, but the Christmas bonus will continue.
Ford will close its Windsor casting plant in 2007, which will wipe out 530 jobs.
x Another 600 jobs will disappear at the nearby Essex engine plant, which is fed by the Windsor casting operation.
Those cuts will reduce Ford's overall CAW employment in Ontario to an estimated 10,500 by 2008 from about 11,600 CAW members today, Mr. Hargrove said.
Stacey Allerton Firth, Ford Canada's vice-president of human resources, would not confirm the specific numbers, but acknowledged there will be job cuts. "We are going to do everything we can to minimize the impact of those job reductions on our employees.
"It's pretty challenging times, and we find ourselves in a fiercely competitive environment particularly in North America. We're in a position where we have to realign our manufacturing capacity with the current marketplace realities that we're facing," she said.
The union won a promise from the company to build a new engine for the threatened Essex engine plant once V6 production is phased out there in 2007-08. But the new engine will provide jobs for only about 400 people, compared with 1,500 now.
Ford also agreed to invest $200-million at its assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont., to refresh its Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis full-sized cars and to keep that plant open for the next three years.
"That's a major victory for St. Thomas," Mr. Hargrove said, noting that it was rumoured to be on the hit list in a Ford restructuring that will be announced in several weeks and is expected to include the closing of assembly plants in St. Louis, Mo., St. Paul, Minn., and Wixom, Mich.
Union negotiators were able to save both the Essex engine plant in Windsor and the St. Thomas Assembly Plant in St. Thomas, Ont., and its 2,700 jobs.
"He's done very well," said Sean McAlinden, who watches the Canadian talks closely as director of the economics and business group of the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ford's in the worst shape of the Big Three."
The union also agreed to a three-year pension deal for the first time ever, an abandonment of a long-standing CAW principle that pension agreements last six years, not three years like the rest of the contract.
All three auto makers insisted on the change, Mr. Hargrove said.
"They've had that demand since 1987 and they were a little more aggressive this time," he said.
Mr. Hargrove wants the CAW to turn its attention now to DaimlerChrysler, which has already notified the union that it wants to close its casting plant in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, Mr. Hargrove told The Globe and Mail's editorial board yesterday.
That move would wipe out about 440 jobs and leave that auto maker with no parts-making operations in Canada.
The union is expected to leave negotiations with GM until last. GM has stated publicly that it needs an agreement that freezes overall labour costs.
The decision on which company to tackle next could come later this week, Mr. Hargrove said.