AVON LAKE — About 180 workers at Ford Motor Co.’s Ohio Assembly Plant will be laid off indefinitely starting Aug. 10.

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said layoff notices already have been sent to the affected workers. Evans said the company is slowing production of the Econoline vans built at the plant, where approximately 2,000 union workers are employed.

Ford Sales Analysis Manager George Pipas said the Econoline and Club Wagon sales were down 37 percent in the first half of the year compared with 2008. This year, Ford has sold 46,888 of the vehicles compared with 74,575 last year.

But Pipas said that’s close to the 35 percent sales slump that the entire auto industry has been experiencing in the current recession.

Ford only produces the vehicles it believes can be sold.

“We’re going to align our production with consumer demand,” Pipas said.

Pipas said the recession could be nearing its lowest point and economic recovery is a real possibility in the coming months. That, he said, could mean an increase in sales followed by an increase in production.

“Among Ford economists, there is some belief that in the second half (of the year) we’ll start to see some modest economic recovery,” he said.

Avon Lake Mayor Karl “K.C.” Zuber said the latest round of layoffs at Ohio Assembly isn’t unexpected.

“It’s part of the economic downturn,” he said.

Avon Lake relies heavily on incomes taxes collected from Ford workers to fund its city budget, and Zuber said the auto industry’s woes have led to much less money being collected.

In 2006, he said, Ford workers contributed about $3.3 million to the city’s coffers, while this year the city expects to collect about $1.7 million from Ford employees because of previous layoffs at the plant.

But Zuber said the city has been careful to keep some of the money it has collected in the past in case of a sudden drop in revenue from Ford.

“We have money in the bank to do what we have to do and stave off layoffs,” he said.

The layoffs at Ford come nearly five months after members of United Autoworkers Local 2000, which represents workers at the plant, voted overwhelmingly to support concessions to help Ford stay solvent.

Ford has rejected federal bailout money that domestic competitors General Motors and Chrysler took in their efforts to avoid bankruptcy, which both ultimately ended up entering.

The union vote authorizing concessions also called for Ford to bring production of a new vehicle to Ohio Assembly.

It has been widely speculated that that vehicle will be the Transit van now built in Europe, but union and city officials have said they haven’t been told what the vehicle will be.

Evans declined to discuss the issue Friday.

Zuber said he has talked with state and company officials about possible incentive deals to help facilitate the new product line, but nothing has been officially offered.

But he also said that Ford may wait until after the economy has improved before announcing its decision and moving forward.

UAW officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---