Ford Runs Reverse WILL Keep St. Louis and Atlanta Plants Open But Will Close Lorain Ohio Van Plant

DETROIT, Sept 19, 2003; Reuters reported good news for Ford workers in Atlanta and St. Louis.

Ford Motor Co. will reverse a decision to close its St. Louis assembly plant and provide additional work to its Atlanta plant under a tentative deal with the United Auto Workers, a top union official said on Friday.

In return for the St. Louis plant, which had been slated for closure as part of the automaker's cost-cutting plans, Ford will be allowed to close its Lorain, Ohio, assembly plant, company and other union sources said. The Lorain plant currently builds large vans and employs about 1,640 people, and its production will be consolidated into another Ohio plant.

"St. Louis is fine. Atlanta is fine," UAW International Vice President Gerald Bantom told Reuters.

The moves follow both Ford's vow to follow plans to cut as many as 12,000 hourly workers as part of its turnaround plan, and the union's goal to keep plants running in the United States.

The UAW and Ford, along with General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler arm, reached tentative four-year labor agreements earlier this week.

Bantom said the St. Louis plant, which employs about 2,600 people and builds the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Aviator SUVs, would be the beneficiary of a package of business incentives from the state of Missouri set to be announced next week.

He also said the plant in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville would get new business; the plant, with about 2,100 workers, had been scheduled to build only the aging Ford Taurus sedan through the remainder of the decade.

A Ford spokeswoman did not immediately return calls for comment. A company source had said the St. Louis-Lorain deal would include generous benefits for workers faced with losing their jobs.

In addition to Lorain, Ford has slated its Edison, New Jersey, plant to close, along with two small parts plants.

Union officials had been upset about Ford's plans to close or wind down plants in the United States while building a new mid-size family sedan at its plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, and at least two new mid-size sport utility vehicles at another facility in Oakville, Ontario.

Ford had targeted its St. Louis and Edison, New Jersey, assembly plants for shutdowns as part of the multiyear turnaround plan it launched in January 2002.