Ford could cut some jobs in Avon Lake as it converts its plant there to make big trucks instead of vans, but the transition could attract more businesses to the area.
Clik here to view.
Ford Motor Co. plans to move its medium-duty truck business to Ohio from Mexico under terms of a tentative new deal with the United Auto Workers. Large trucks such as the 2008 F-650 leave the plant half finished. Specialty companies later add on more equipment.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ford Motor Co. doesn't expect to add any jobs to its Ohio Assembly Plant when it switches to large commercial trucks from vans, but Avon Lake Mayor Karl Zuber sees a potential economic boom.
Commercial-truck plants make half-finished vehicles -- typically a cab, an engine, a suspension and just enough metal to hold it all together. Specialty companies called upfitters then add dump-truck bodies, delivery bodies, storage beds or other components that commercial-truck owners need.
Northeast Ohio will have the opportunity to recruit some of those upfitters, Zuber said.
"We have already tried to work with these companies, trying to get them here," he said, adding that many of the Econoline vans the plant now makes would ship half-finished to upfit companies. "With [bigger commercial vehicles] coming in, we'll work even harder with those kinds of operations."
Clik here to view.
After leaving the assembly plant half-finished, commercial trucks go to specialty companies called upfitters that add on equipment such as the dump-truck body on this F-650 truck.The United Auto Workers announced Tuesday that Ford will move its commercial-truck business to Avon Lake from Mexico if workers agree to a tentative new contract between the automaker and the union.
Under the new labor deal, the plant would keep some of the commercial-van work it now performs and would add commercial trucks and Ford's motorhome chassis business. UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said that Ford and the union are still working on jobs numbers but that the plant could lose 100 of its 1,880 jobs when the bulk of van production ends.
Ford officials declined to comment on jobs numbers, saying they won't talk about their plans until workers have approved the new labor deal. The union expects voting to be finished by Oct. 16.
Zuber said he's cautiously optimistic that truck upfitters will follow Ford's move to Ohio.
Other cities have seen such booms.
Ford started making its large commercial trucks in Louisville, Ky., in 1969. Within a few years, companies such as Manning Equipment and Louisville Truck Equipment sprang up near the plant or moved next door. In Manning's case, Ford worked out specialized delivery agreements, so trucks flowed almost directly from the Ford plant's assembly lines into Manning's shop.
Greater Louisville Inc., the city's chamber of commerce, estimates that 6,000 people work at two Ford plants in that city, but 7,500 others work at adjacent plants. Most of those additional workers are at supplier plants, but several hundred work at upfitter shops that wouldn't exist if Ford wasn't producing commercial vehicles there, said James Reddish, economic development manager for Greater Louisville Inc.
In 1997, Ford sold the portion of its commercial truck line that made tractor-trailer size vehicles. Louisville continued to produce large pickups and medium-duty trucks -- large vehicles that fall between big pickups and massive 18-wheel trucks. Cement trucks, flat-bed tow trucks and many of the bigger vehicles used by road construction crews fall into that category.
In 2001, Ford formed a joint venture with commercial truck company Navistar to make medium-duty trucks in Mexico. The Kentucky plant expanded to make more pickups. Reddish said that although the heavier business was gone, the upfitters stayed because there was still plenty of work to do, upgrading the F-450 and F-550 truck frames coming out of the plant.
Manning opened up a shop south of San Antonio so it could upfit the medium-duty F-650 and F-750 trucks as they came out of Mexico.
Zuber said there are already companies in Avon Lake, Elyria and Wooster that take half-finished commercial vans from the Ford plant and convert them into delivery vehicles and other specialty products, and he hopes some of them will expand as Ford begins offering new products from the plant.
Jenn Voelker, a spokeswoman for Leggett & Platt, said her company has a plant in Elyria that upgrades vans, and it is always looking for opportunities to expand its product line.
"We're already there" because of the van plant, Voelker said. Being so close cuts shipping costs, she said, and with companies looking to cut expenses wherever possible, staying near supply plants will continue to be critical.