By Dan Verbeck
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-988819.mp3
Claycomo, MO. – Ford Motor is about to invest $1.1 Billion into the Claycomo, Mo. assembly plant and add 16 hundred jobs over the next four years, according to Missouri's Governor. A former United Auto Workers Union local head expects the negotiated package to pass when members vote at a later date.
Word began filtering out of Detroit at mid-day about the plan to upgrade and expand and add jobs at the plant where one line produces trucks, another SUV's.
The SUV line is to be reduced in the future in favor of a new cargo truck. The tenative agreement reportedly would bring the Claycomo work force to about 5,400 which is close to its record high.
Ford and the United Auto Workers are negotiating a system-wide contract as well as the local.
Jim Stouffer is a past president of UAW local 249 and tells KCUR news, workers elsewhere may not like the offering but it's a different situation at Claycomo " (with) the details coming out of Detroit today, I think some people are going to be pretty happy. But some people are going to be pretty upset. They want that cost of living back." Stouffer says that was a big thing. But, he added, " overall for this plant, I think the news is outstanding."
Stouffer has no doubt it'll be ratified by members.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and the General Assembly negotiated an incentive package to keep a strong Ford presence in the state.
Stouffer believes the plant will begin making the new cargo truck after the system is retooled next year. That operation, he says, will put two shifts of workers on layoff, some 16 hundred people. But Stouffer also says they will get between 90 and 95 percent of their regular pay during the down time.