Ford Updates Louisville Plant, Adds New Jobs
An investment at Ford's Louisville Assembly plant will have implications at the company's factories across the country.
"We announced that the new next generation Escape, off our global C-car platform is coming to Louisville, Kentucky," said Ford vice president of manufacturing Jim Tetreault." "With that, we're going to invest over six hundred million dollars in transforming this plant and our next generation of flexible manufacturing."
The plant currently employs 1,100 people on one shift and has been building the Ford Explorer mid-size SUV since 1989. Production of the Explorer is being moved to a plant in Chicago.
Tetrault telling WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert this will mean 1800 new jobs. But, he couldn't say how many would be new hires, and where all the hiring might be done.
"We have some employees who have rights to return to Louisville, and some of them had transferred to other plants as Explorer production went down the last couple of years," he said.
So, as those workers transfer back to Louisville, that could mean opportunities at Ford plants elsewhere, including Michigan. Ford currently has about three hundred workers on layoff nationwide.
Newly hired workers make an entry level, "second tier" wage that's about half of the pay of veteran auto workers.
It will take about a year to make the updates that Ford is planning for the 55 year old plant, that once was home to the Edsel. But, when it's finished, it will join other Ford plants in being very flexible.
"Louisville will end up as our highest volume plant in North America to date," says Tetreault. "It will also be our most flexible."
While Ford has only committed to building the next generation Escape at Louisville, Tetreault says the flexibility will allow them to build six vehicles on two platforms.
For now, Ford has scrapped plans to build a small SUV to export to Europe. But, the company says if conditions change, the plant would have the ability to export vehicles.
A concept vehicle that will give hints of the styling of the next generation Explorer will be unveiled at next month's North American International Auto Show.
