The last thing we want to do is crush the hopes and dreams of people who want to get one of those new jobs at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant.
But donning the rose-colored glasses just to run an impossibly hopeful news story isn’t what we do here at Insider Louisville.
Yes, Ford Motor Co. is spending $600 million to update LAP for making several lines of vehicles. And the workforce will expand.
But people who know how the Detroit-based automaker hires are telling Insider Louisville there’s no way in hell 1,800 random Louisvillians are going to have new LAP jobs as of this time next year.
According to one former Ford insider, “no matter what you’re reading in the media, it’s a long-shot bet to get hired at Ford.”
Most news outlets have the numbers wrong because they parroted Metro Mayor Greg Fischer’s news release yesterday:
Starting today and continuing until July 14, Ford Motor Company is accepting applications to hire 1,800 new workers at the Louisville Assembly Plant on Fern Valley Road, Mayor Greg Fischer announced today. The workers are needed to produce the new Ford Escape following the $600 million re-tooling and transformation of the plant to make it the most modern, flexible plant in the company.
Except they’re not needed.
The actual number from an internal memo is 1,344 jobs.
The 10,000 people standing in line at the unemployment office … the chances are about zero they’re going to get a Ford job because there are thousands of current or former Ford employees way ahead of them, said our source.
Those include:
all 900 people laid off since the end of Explorer production.
all the referrals from LAP’s current employees.
then all the Ford workers in Kansas City who have the right of transfer to follow the Escape to Louisville if they chose too.
all the people laid off from dozens of Ford plants nationwide.
all of the several hundred workers who are on “indefinite layoff” in Louisville who didn’t take a buyout or a transfer to another location.
All those people have first rights before the first new employ.
Then, Ford’s 2009 contract concession with the United Auto Workers states although the company can hire workers at half the traditional wage, the automaker is limited in the number of lower paid employees it can hire – 20 percent of plant workforce, to be exact.
It’s more likely the majority of new hires will come from referrals and transfers, “so there’s a a lot of false hope,” says our insider.
Moreover, a number of people who left Ford after 2007 buyouts become eligible to return next year.
The glass isn’t half-full. It isn’t half-empty, either.
But we all have to admit the glass isn’t yet full.
Our insider’s advice for anyone who does get one of the new jobs?
“Go buy a lottery ticket!”
Here’s the text of an email sent out to LAP employees from building chairman Steve Stone:
Nationwide production posting are up for Chicago Assembly, Chicago Stamping, KTP and LAP. Louisville is posting for 1344 jobs while KTP posted for 210.
Also, the Kansas City Plant has started the official survey for the Transfer of Operations of the Escape.
All postings close by the close of business Monday, July 11, 2011.
The Office of Employment and Training at 600 W. Cedar St. will be taking applications for permanent employment at the Louisville Assembly Plant from 7/8/11 through 7/14/11.
Terry Boyd has seven years experience as a business/finance journalist, and eight years a military reporter with European Stars and Stripes. As a banking and finance reporter at Business First, Boyd dealt directly with the most influential executives and financiers in Louisville.
