Ford to add jobs in Chicago

Ford confirmed Tuesday that it will add a second shift of 1,200 jobs in Chicago to produce the next-generation Ford Explorer SUV starting in the fourth quarter of this year, giving the Dearborn, Mich., automaker an opportunity to hire workers for the first time at a $14 per hour, lower-tier wage rate.

Ford said it plans to invest nearly $400 million to launch production of the new, fuel-efficient Ford Explorer. The company also will increase production at the nearby Chicago Stamping Plant.

The investment includes approximately $180 million for manufacturing equipment at the Chicago sites and about $220 million for launch and engineering costs, and could lead to hiring of hundreds of workers at a lower-tier wage agreed to in the 2007 UAW contract, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. A provision of that contract enables Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to pay new hires $14.20 per hour initially.

- Associated Press

"We will first offer positions to folks who are on indefinite layoff around the system, and then we will see if we have to hire some new hires, but to be honest, it is still too early in the planning process to declare a number on that," Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, told the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday.

As of Jan. 1, about 600 Ford hourly workers were on temporary layoff, said Ford spokesman John Stoll. However, that figure doesn't exclude workers who have accepted a buyout offer that was available until last Friday.

Ford has not disclosed how many workers accepted the latest buyout offer, but the Free Press reported last week that it's likely lower than the 1,000 who accepted a buyout package in May.

The lower hourly wage is about half of what current UAW assembly workers make. Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and the UAW agreed to the provision in 2007 as part of an effort to bring labor costs closer to what non-union rivals Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai pay at their U.S. factories.

Some union activists are highly critical of the two-tier wage agreement and argue that it could lead to dissention on the plant floor.

But Trini Hernandez of Elwood, Ill., is eager to apply.

"That's a good job," said Hernandez, who was laid off more than a year ago by a railroad company. He said the starting wage is several dollars an hour lower than what he is accustomed to making.

"It is lower than what I was making," he said. "But I really want this job."

The second-tier wage, combined with the increased production at the plant, will help to turn Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant, which first opened in 1924, into a more profitable plant for Ford.

"From a capacity utilization standpoint, it is good news in terms of making the plant more productive," Fields said.

Ford's announcement Tuesday also illustrates Ford's progress, McAlinden said.

Over the next 15 months in the U.S., Ford plans to launch freshened Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers, a redesigned Super Duty pickup, a Mustang GT with a bigger V8 engine, and all-new versions of the Ford Explorer SUV and Ford Focus compact car.

The Chicago Assembly Plant currently has approximately 1,200 employees working on one shift. Ford's Chicago Stamping Plant, which opened in 1956, has approximately 700 employees on two shifts.

Ford currently builds the Explorer at Louisville Assembly, but that plant will soon be converted to produce a smaller vehicle that shares the same structure as the Focus.