Ford adds a second shift to one of its Brook Park engine plants and is adding jobs to its Lima Engine Plant. Ohio has offered the company $8.25 million in tax breaks to support the projects.
Tom Schneider, left, and Robert Lind work on timing chain installation on EcoBoost V-6 engines at Ford's Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park last year. Ford started a second shift at the plant this week to build engines for the F-150 pickup.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ford Motor Co. has added about 300 jobs to its Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park to start a second shift there.
The automaker is boosting production of the turbocharged, 3.5-liter V-6 engine made there because it plans to use that EcoBoost engine in its 2011 F-150 pickup.
Union leaders had said a second shift would start at the plant before the end of this year.
"We're keeping everybody working, and we're going after new work," United Auto Workers Local 1250 President Mike Gammella said. Most of the workers on the new shift came from the Cleveland Casting Plant, a Brook Park facility that closed a the end of October.
On Monday, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved up to $5 million in tax credits to Ford to support the second shift. The automaker must spend $50 million in improvements and maintain 750 jobs at the plant for eight years to get the full credit.
The 750-job promise underscores how far the Brook Park complex has fallen in recent years. In 2007, when Ford announced it would close the casting plant and temporarily shut down Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1, more than 2,500 people worked at Ford's three plants.
Since then, the Casting Plant closed and Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 went down to one shift. Today, about 1,100 workers have jobs at Brook Park.
Next year, Ford expects to end production of the 3-liter V-6 made at Engine Plant No. 2, putting jobs there in jeopardy.
Gammella said the union plans to fight for new jobs during contract negotiations next year between the automaker and the UAW.
"We'd like to maintain that [1,100-job] number, and I think we will," Gammella said. "I'm very confident we'll be able to maintain that number."
The state this week also approved $3.25 million in tax credits for a $50 million investment at Ford's Lima Engine Plant. Lima makes the non-turbocharged version of the 3.5-liter V-6 used in the Ford Taurus and several other vehicles.
Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said the company is boosting production of the engine and has added several jobs in Lima in recent months.