1,000 workers will return to Ford F-150 plant

[DainBramaged]

Source: Automotive News

October 30, 2008 - 2:09 pm ET


DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. plans to restore a third crew of production workers to its F-150 plant in Dearborn, Mich., in January, adding about 1,000 employees to the plant's work force.

"Despite the challenges in the market, the full-size pickup market remains one of the largest in the industry, and we are ensuring we have the production capacity we need to meet market demand," Joe Hinrichs, group vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs, said in a company statement.

Ford spent $148 million to upgrade the suburban Detroit plant for the launch of the 2009 F-150. Ford executives today celebrated the production launch of the new version of the truck.

Record-high gasoline prices and the downturn in the economy sent F-series sales plummeting this year. Through September, Ford sold 392,698 F-series trucks, down 26.9 percent from the same period a year ago.



Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081030/ANA02/810309966/1176/COPY01&Profile=1176

[Donnachaidh]

1. watch all these companies SUDDENLY bring back jobs

They know if they don't they are well and truly screwed.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. I like good news

I swear, half or more of my depressing days come from hearing of friends whose jobs are evaporating here in NE Ohio.

When I started working in '72 as a 19 year old boy, Packard Electric (Delphi) was hiring 100 people a day. After a few months, I considered quitting and going to the Chevy plant in Lordstown. I could have taken a job at Republic Steel, but I didn't think I wanted that kind of work, so I stayed for 30 years.

I've watched as union jobs left, replaced by low wage temp work and service jobs over the years. Though the companies complained about unions cutting into their profits, those years of union cooperation turned out to be their most profitable. We worked, we bought cars, and we went to work again.

As a matter of observation, when I began working for GM a new Camaro cost $3,000, and I earned $6.50/hour. When I retired in '03, I was making about four times that, but that new Camaro ballooned to ten times the cost.

When I tell people I made $6.50 an hour in 1972, they point out that "that was a lot of money back then". I reply that "Republicans still think it's a lot of money".

The unions didn't kill manufacturing jobs in this country.... corporate greed did.

[brer cat]

3. Sounds like good news for Mich!

Jobs, Baby, Jobs!

[Gman]

4. Gas approaching $2.00 a gallon is the biggest reason

I saw gas for $1.93 yesterday in Brownsville, TX.

[DainBramaged]

5. I know it is a double edged sword

Until Obama takes office and we begin to find our way out of the pit of oil dependence, we have to compromise.

[Beaverhausen]

6. good news but Ford should have upgraded the plant to produce more hybrids

I don't know anything about anything but shouldn't that have been what they did instead?

[DainBramaged]

7. OK, and where would the money have come from?

And how long do you think it takes to re-tool a manufacturing plant?

[Beaverhausen]

8. it says in the OP that Ford spent $148 Million on the plant

Don't get mad at me - just a suggestion.

[DainBramaged]

10. To retool over the summer to REPLACE the outgoing model

That plant has been a truck plant for decades. And since there are no hybrid trucks (pickups) available right now from any of the Big three, it would be difficult to switch in mid-stream.

The point is, until the new hybrids and hydrogen powered vehicles come on stream, we have to make do, and even though so many here are vehemently against anything that doesn't say 'hybrid' on the side, people need to work, and with the 'gas crisis' now known to be manufactured, it will take more than a raise in prices to get people to invest in alternative technology, it's just human nature.


:hi:

[amandabeech]

12. It will be awhile before the hybrids really take over the work pickups.

People looking for a work pickup won't be buying hybrids until they're proven for heavy-duty use, which right now they aren't.

Truck people often are married to their brands, and Ford is the best selling. The F-150 is a great truck according to those who own them, and I doubt if the Ford owners are too interested in other brands. They're not going to be buying Dodge or Nissan.

I just bought a pre-owned Ford sedan at a more rural dealership, and the dealership is looking for 2008 F-150s to sell. In a more rural area, the demand for work trucks hasn't slowed down as much.

I'm sure that the dealer is looking forward to getting some of those 2009s in, particularly if they come with a good financing program.

Folks who drive trucks as a you-know-what symbol are the ones getting rid of them. Folks who need them are still buying when they have to.

[krispos42]

9. Sure, used-car lots are choked with unwanted, cheap used pickups

Many late models with low miles that were repossessed.


So we're making new ones???

[DainBramaged]

11. The supply is quickly drying up, trust me I go to the auctions

And the weather problems across the country opened up new channels for used vehicles to replace destroyed vehicles like you cannot believe, of ALL types.