Ford workers approved a new labor contract Monday that should bring new work to its Brook Park engine plant. The automaker has a major investment announcement scheduled for Thursday.
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Ford workers approved a new labor deal Monday that should guaranty a new engine line for the Brook Park engine plant. In this 2012 file photo, Ford worker Nate Antill, 37, assembles a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 engine.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Brook Park Ford workers on Monday approved a new contract that guaranteed the plant a new product, most likely a fuel-saving four-cylinder engine that's quickly becoming the automaker's favorite motor.
United Auto Workers Local 1250 President Mike Gammella said the new contract should keep the Brook Park site vibrant for years to come. Gamella has been lobbying Ford for small engines for years.
"This is absolutely huge for our site," Gammella said.
Gammella said the new pact could bring employment at the plant to 1,800 within a few years, up from 1,065 now. He expects about 200 people to come in the first round of hires with more to follow as Ford adds the small engine to other vehicles.
Still, passage was narrow, and union officials had to run a few recounts to make sure it passed. The final tally was 292 votes for the new contract, 289 against.
Ford officials won't say yet what the company's plans are for Brook Park, other than to say a major announcement should take place Thursday. Joe Hinrichs, the No. 3 executive at Ford behind President and Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields, is set to announce changes that morning.
But a quick look at where Ford makes and uses its engines shows one powerplant that the car company needs to build in North America soon - a 2-liter, four-cylinder EcoBoost model now made in Spain.
EcoBoost is Ford's term for turbocharged engines that use direct fuel injection. The two systems allow for small, powerful engines that can replace bigger, less-efficient ones.
The company's biggest success with the system so far has been the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 made in Brook Park. Used in pickups, large cars, crossovers and sport utility vehicles, that engine offers the power of a large V-8 with much better fuel economy.
Because of the EcoBoost's success in the F-150 pickup, Ford's Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 has been running three daily shifts for nearly a year.
The 2-liter EcoBoost could be even more popular.
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Ford's 2-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine is now made in Spain, but it could move to Brook Park in the near future.
The small EcoBoost is an option on six Ford cars today, ranging from the Fusion mid-sized sedan to the Explorer SUV. In the case of the Fusion and Escape small SUV, the 2-liter EcoBoost replaced a 3-liter V-6 that had been built at Brook Park's Cleveland Engine Plant No. 2.
That plant closed last year when Ford scrapped the 3-liter V-6. Workers moved from Engine Plant No. 2 to Engine Plant No. 1 which was adding its third shift at the time.
Winning a new engine would be a big boost for the plant which not only lost the second engine plant last year but lost a massive iron casting facility in 2010.
Workers for the new engine would likely come from Ford plants that are set to close, such as the Walton Hills Stamping Plant that will shut down by 2015.
Tom Libby, an analyst with R.L. Polk consulting and research company in Detroit, said the cars that would use the 2-liter EcoBoost are the heart of where the car market will be over the next several years.
"Four cylinder engines now make up more than 50 percent of the new vehicle market in the United States," Libby said, adding that small engines crossed that threshold last year for the first time in U.S. history. "That's where the market is going."
Mike Omotoso, an analyst with research company LMC-Automotive in Detroit, said the small engine could become the plant's best seller.
"We're looking at volumes in the 370,000-to-400,000 units per year range between now and 2018," Omotoso said. "So it does make sense to shift production from Europe."
Brook Park makes fewer than 200,000 EcoBoost truck engines per year. Gammella said production of the new engine will ramp up over several years, so the plant won't need to triple its employment to feed that demand. Also, the new smaller engine should take fewer work hours to produce than the larger V-6.
Ford could bring other engines into Brook Park, but the 2-liter EcoBoost is the only one that makes clear sense. The company also imports a 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine from England, but it only uses that is specialty versions of the Escape and Fusion. A non-turbocharged version of that engine used in the Fiesta subcompact comes from a plant in Brazil.
The only other Ford engine that doesn't come from North America is the 3.2-liter diesel scheduled for use in the Transit van later this year. Ford makes the five-cylinder diesel in South Africa.