Ford turns up nose at unprecedented offer to save St. Thomas Assembly Plant

In a last-ditch effort to save the St. Thomas assembly plant, the province and Canadian Auto Workers made offers of cash and unprecedented concessions — but Ford Motor Co. said no.

The province offered as much as $150 million and the union told the company to cherry-pick details of any collective agreement and put it on the table, CAW national president Ken Lewenza said yesterday.

“(Ford of Canada vice-president) Joe Hendricks told me directly he could not get a better deal from any government than the one the Ontario government was prepared to put in front of Ford Motor Co. He was clear about that,” Lewenza said. “They were prepared to do more than any jurisdiction in the world. The Ontario government was prepared to be a major player.”

Instead, Ford will close the St. Thomas assembly plant in September 2011, cutting 1,600 jobs.

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80% of CAW Local 1520 membership vote in favour of new deal

TORONTO, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ – Thousands of CAW members working at Ford facilities in Oakville, Windsor, St. Thomas and Bramalea have voted in favour of a new agreement, ratifying the deal by 83 per cent during a series of meetings held over the past two days. The deal was reached on October 30 between the two sides.

“No one should mistake workers’ approval as satisfaction with the new agreement,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza. “Members had faith in the union to negotiate the best agreement possible and protect their interests over the long term, but the problems faced by industry cannot be resolved at the bargaining table.”

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A done deal – Ford to close St. Thomas plant in 2011, shed 1,400 jobs

MONTREAL — US automaker Ford Motor Co. will shutter one of its manufacturing plants in Canada in 2011, a move that will cut 1,400 jobs, the Canadian Auto Workers said Friday.

As part of a cost-reduction agreement between the company’s US headquarters and the CAW, the plant in St. Thomas will close in the third quarter of 2011, the powerful union said in a statement.

Some 1,400 employees will be dismissed, CAW spokeswoman Shannon Devine told AFP. Canadian media put the number of jobs eliminated at 1,600.

As part of the tentative agreement the union said it obtained a commitment by the US automaker to keep at least 10 percent of its North American production in Canada.
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St. Thomas Assembly Plant … “it is not looking good”

The future of the St. Thomas assembly plant was discussed yesterday and the automaker repeated there is no product for the local plant after 2011, Lewenza said.

The Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car are produced at the plant.

“We want St. Thomas to be extended, but that product line is being phased out. They have capacity all over the place. It is not looking good today.”

Ford did emphasize in talks yesterday it has made significant investments in Windsor, reopening an engine plant next year, and has added a fourth vehicle to its Oakville assembly plant.

“They indicated to us . . . Canada has been a key player in Ford’s success, but there is no product to allocate.”

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CAW emphasizes importance of new Ford contract as negotiations resume

The main issue in the ongoing negotiations on this side of the border is the future of an assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

Currently, the 1,600-employee plant builds the Ford Crown Victoria, the Lincoln Town Car and the Mercury Grand Marquis – all full-sized cars, demand for which is limited to niche markets. The Crown Victoria is only included in sales of fleets, such as those run by police departments and taxi companies.

Ford has said repeatedly that it has no plans to manufacture vehicles in St. Thomas beyond 2011. Lewenza has suggested Ford could increase production at its other Canadian plants to offset the closure of St. Thomas, but Ford won’t release any details on its plans.

“We’ve asked them to take a look at where existing work is being sourced and see if there’s a possibility to source more work into our workplaces and those are the options we’re going to have to talk about (this) week, but to be honest we haven’t made much headway,” Lewenza said.

Ford spokeswoman Lauren More said the company doesn’t discuss future production or product plans for competitive reasons.
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Ford commits to new vehicles at U.S. plants, no such progress for St. Thomas Assembly Plant

Ford Motor Co. (F-N7.570.152.02%) has promised the United Auto Workers that its U.S. plants will receive a flurry of new vehicles, transmissions and other work during the next few years, while refusing so far to allocate new products to two Canadian plants.

Three Ford assembly plants – in Chicago, Louisville, Ky., and Wayne, Mich. – will begin building new vehicles in the next two years, and a commercial van called the Transit Connect that is now imported from Europe will be built at a UAW plant if North American assembly becomes necessary, according to investment commitments contained in a new contract between Ford and the union.

“The company reaffirmed its commitment to the UAW and its manufacturing presence in the U.S.,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s group vice-president of global manufacturing, said in a letter to UAW officials that is part of the new contract.

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CAW won’t agree to strike ban in new Ford deal

Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza says Ford Canada shouldn’t expect the same concessions that Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) won in recent talks with its union in the United States including a ban on strikes over wages or benefits.

“Obviously we watched the U.S. negotiations closely with the UAW because of the competitive challenges we have from one country to the other,” Lewenza said in an interview Friday.

The CAW says Ford Canada intends to slash its Canadian manufacturing presence from 13 per cent to eight per cent of total North American production. Ford currently has no plans to build vehicles at its St. Thomas, Ont., plant beyond 2011.
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CAW Under pressure to make deal with Ford

Pressure has shifted to the Canadian Auto Workers union after Ford Motor Co. struck a concession-laden deal with the United Auto Workers.

Canada must remain competitive with its U. S. neighbour to maintain automotive investment and the union must look at bringing Ford’s labour costs here in line with its American workers — as well as GM and Chrysler — or risk losing jobs, Ken Lewenza, CAW national president, warned Wednesday.

“There is serious pressure. We should not underestimate that we always measure ourselves against the Americans. We always have, we always will,” Lewenza said.

“They are better positioned now than we are,” he said of the UAW deal. “If we do not get an agreement, it will be disastrous.”

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U.S. truck plant idling on Canadian tax dollars

Ontario taxpayers have provided the U.S. owners of a Chatham truck plant with millions of dollars to keep it open, but the government won’t disclose job and production commitments for the operation that has now remained idle for more than three months.

Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello said Tuesday she couldn’t reveal whether International Truck and Engine Corp. had breached its commitments at the Navistar assembly plant in Chatham.

Pupatello said in an interview that terms of the deal remain confidential and the information could affect contract talks between the company and union during the current shutdown.

“It puts us in an awkward position because of the discussions between the company and the labour force,” she added. “Clearly, disclosure could give one (side) an advantage and that’s not our role.”

U.S.-based parent Navistar International stopped truck production at the end of June when management and the Canadian Auto Workers hit an impasse in bargaining.
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Plant closing means more than loss of jobs

When Ford closes its mammoth St. Thomas assembly plant in about two years – as it’s expected to – the fallout won’t stop with the loss of 1,500 or so well-paying blue-collar jobs. There’s the matter of the millions of tax dollars Ford pays in Elgin County, the hundreds of thousands of dollars Ford workers contribute to the United Way every year and the tens of millions they spend in their communities on homes, cars, groceries, appliances, municipal taxes, entertainment and recreation.
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Ford St. Thomas Assembly Plant Doomed

Ford will shut down its St. Thomas assembly plant in 2011 and the workers can do little to stop it, their national president says.

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union and Ford of Canada are in talks on a concessionary collective agreement to cut Ford’s costs, a step the union is willing to take if Ford brings new investment and jobs to Canada. But that won’t be in St. Thomas, CAW president Ken Lewenza said today

“They will not invest in the plant. Ford is determined to close St. Thomas,” he said. “They told us they are going to close the plant. They do not have product after 2011 and there are no plans to give us a product.

“They do not see a future in St. Thomas. That is their terminology.”

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Canadian Auto Workers offers concessions to Ford

Ford has made significant investments in its centerpiece Oakville, Ontario assembly plant and is adding more capacity to its engine manufacturing operations in Windsor. But during the 2008 contract discussions, it announced that it had no plans for a new product line at its St. Thomas, Ontario plant. That facility, which produces Ford’s larger, less popular automobiles, lost 700 jobs and its second-shift last year and is all but officially earmarked for shuttering in 2011 with the attendant loss of the remaining 1,600 jobs.
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Ingersoll CAMI workers back pay, pension freeze

Workers at the booming CAMI auto assembly plant in Ingersoll have accepted a new contract that will freeze wages for almost four years and pensions for eight years but assure production until late into the next decade.

Meanwhile, the CAW and Ford Motor Co. of Canada are still trying to negotiate revisions to lower labour costs in an existing contract that would match earlier concession deals at struggling GM and Chrysler.

The union wants to save a sputtering Ford assembly plant in St. Thomas that has no production schedule beyond 2011 and gain more work at engine operations in Windsor.
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