Ford workers are voting throughout the day Monday on a tentative new contract that would bring a new engine to the automaker's plant in Brook Park. The union has been pushing for small car engines at the plant for many years.
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Ford workers build EcoBoost engines at the company's Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park. Ford plans to announce a major new investment at the plant Thursday as workers vote on a tentative new contract with the automaker.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As Ford workers in Brook Park vote on a tentative new contract today, the automaker has already scheduled a major announcement for Thursday about new investments there.
Ford and the United Auto Workers Local 1250 reached a new labor deal last week, a deal the union said included no major changes to work rules. In exchange, the union said the automaker would bring a new line of small engines to the plant that now makes mostly truck motors. The expansion could bring nearly 800 jobs over the next several years.
The plant now has 1,065 hourly workers.
Adding a new engine line would be the first major expansion at Brook Park after years of contraction. As recently as 2010, the site had three plants -- two engine plants and a massive iron casting plant. The casting plant closed in 2010 and Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2 there closed last year.
The bright spot has been Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1, home of the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. The most popular engine choice in Ford's F-150 pickup, the EcoBoost model offers as much power as a large V-8 but with the fuel economy of a V-6. The plant runs three daily shifts to meet demand for the popular engine, and many dealers complain they still can't get enough trucks in stock.
Ford has been expanding its EcoBoost brand, offering small, turbocharged engines in several larger cars, sport utility vehicles and crossovers. But many of those engines come from plants in Europe. Now that the company expects to sell more than 100,000 of those smaller EcoBoost engines per year, shifting production to the United States makes sense.
UAW Local 1250 President Mike Gammella has made getting small car engines into the plant a priority for the past five years.
In 2009, a tentative national deal between Ford and the UAW would have guaranteed those engines. Though workers in Brook Park supported that pact, it failed when union members at other plants soundly rejected that deal. The 2009 contract would have forbidden workers from striking if labor talks broke down in 2011, a provision that many workers at other sites considered too onerous.
In 2011, the union and Ford struck a new nationwide deal with Ford that again called for new products in Brook Park. Workers nationally and locally approved that deal, setting up Thursday's announcement. As is typical with those national contracts, the new investments were contingent on getting a new local deal in place at the plant.
Officials with the automaker aren't discussion what investments they plan to make here, but on Thursday morning, one of the company's top executives will visit the site to announce the changes. Joe Hinrichs is Ford's president of the Americas, typically the No. 3 spot on the company behind President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields.
Voting on the new labor deal started Monday at 6 a.m. and will continue until 6 p.m. Results are expected later Monday evening.