Ford Super-Duty super-sizes truck plant workforce, adds 2,000 jobs

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Ford's $1.3 billion expanded investment in its Kentucky Truck Plant is a double-down for the Commonwealth and for America's number-two automaker on workforce and on the auto industry as a bread-and-butter employer.

"Our Ford employees here in Louisville have helped create, and support over 80,000 jobs in the community," Ford Americas President Joe Hinrichs told Kentucky Truck Plant workers Tuesday.

"The aluminum industry is a major asset here in Kentucky," Gov. Steve Beshear said. "Some 18,000 Kentuckians work in it."

Ford hasn't revealed how much Kentucky-made aluminum will go into the new F 250-550 series Super Duty pickups, due to begin rolling out of the Kentucky Trunk Plant in mid-2016.

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What is clear is that the expansion will create 2,000 jobs, to add a third-shift for final assembly and new body and paint shops.  Square footage under-roof will expand from about 4.5 million to more than 6 million.

New hires will earn a stepped-level wage, negotiated in Ford's new four-year national contract with the United Auto Workers, narrowly approved only days ago.

"They start at $17 per hour and grow over eight years to the high-end rate which is 29-something per hour," Hinrichs said.

"In the four years I think a lot of that will change, for those people," Bill Thurman, who is in his 26th year on the line at Kentucky Truck Plant, said. "I think that will change for the better.

Nevertheless, Thurman and a majority of members of UAW Local #862 at the Kentucky Truck Plant and Louisville Assembly (Fern Valley Road) voted to reject the national pact, though its $9 billion in plant reinvestment included the commitment to Kentucky Truck Plant.

"Some of the things that we didn't get over the period of years," he said. "Some of the things they took away from us ."

The contract gives Ford no caps on the number of entry-level hires, more opportunities to bring on temporary workers to meet production demands and more freedom to mandate overtime.

Kentucky also granted Ford tax credits for spending on construction and materials. The Commonwealth will cover much of the training for the new production and skilled-trades workers, whose applications will be vetted through the Kentucky Career Center.

"It was in stages," Gov. Beshear said. "They stepped up in early 2014, I think they actually agreed to a minimum of 300 jobs that turned into 1,000 jobs and today is the capstone of that whole process."

Elected officials and officers with Ford and the UAW heaped praise on one another for cooperation in securing the expansion. 

"When the world was in a recession, and when we the global manufacturing industry was trying to find its way you guys stepped up like nobody else." Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said.

"It shows confidence in the productivity, viability and work ethic of the American workforce," UAW regional representative Mike Abell said. "And more importantly, the workforce at the Kentucky Truck Plant."

Ford has not set production figures or price points for the new Super-Duty, which will feature steel frames, longer wheelbases, improved towing capacity and safety options that include as many as seven cameras. 

Hiring is expected to be completed between March and June. Roll-out of the new 2017 models would begin following normal summer break; a seamless transition with no shutdown for retooling time, Ford officials said.

"Aluminum would be a hard-sell," Jack Kain, a Ford dealer based in Versailles, Kentucky, said. "Buyers know that Ford Motor Company wouldn't jeopardize its position of having the #1 truck in the world by putting out something that's second-rate."

Ford also builds the full-size Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs at the Kentucky Truck Plant.

"We definitely want to and expect to make more product in the future, and this will give us that capacity," Hinrichs said.

He declined to offer specifics.

Thurman believes the Kentucky Truck Plant expansion was never in doubt, given that production of current models struggles to meet demand.

"We're about bullet-proof," he said. "It's a very good truck."

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