Ford United Auto Workers local unions in Brook Park and Avon Lake have set their ratification votes for a tentative new contract with the automaker. The new deal would guarantee work for both plants.
Clarence Cloud performs a test on a 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine at Ford's Brook Park engine plant in this 2009 file photo. Ford will add a third shift to the Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 that makes the EcoBoost engine under terms of a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Workers at Ford Motor Co.'s Brook Park engine campus will vote Thursday on a tentative new deal between the United Auto Workers and the company. Workers in Avon Lake are set to vote on Sunday.
Reached last week, the tentative new contract comes with work guarantees for both plants -- a line of commercial trucks at Avon Lake and a third shift at Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park.
The extra shift in Brook Park will only create a small number of new jobs. Most of the positions will go to workers at Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2, a facility set to close early next year. In addition to adding a third shift to make V-6 engines, Ford will add to the plant small engines for fuel-efficient vehicles.
The vote in Brook Park will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the UAW Local 1250's union hall across from the plant. The union will run informational meetings for workers several times during the day to give contract details to workers on different shifts.
The Avon Lake plant is on layoff this week and is set to be down next week. Workers can attend informational meetings from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday at Lorain High School. Voting will take place at the school from noon until 6 p.m.
Officials with the UAW Local 420 in Walton Hills did not return phone calls asking when their vote will take place. Ford plans to close the Walton Hills plant at some point over the next four years, according to the contract.
Nationwide, Ford UAW locals must vote on the deal by the end of the day Sunday.