Car maker Ford Motor Co on Wednesday announced the addition of 1, 550 workers at its four plants for a new project of building aluminum body F-150 pickup truck.
While making the announcement of job hiring, the company also said that it is going to promote the union-represented workers for the first time from the lower entry-level wage to the pay veteran plant workers make.
According to Ford, it is expecting promotion of an estimated 300 to 500 workers by the end of the first quarter.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) union had in 2007 signed an agreement with the three major American automobile companies, including Ford, which said that the new hires of these companies would be paid at a rate less than the money paid by veteran UAW to its workers. The agreement was established in an attempt to allow the American automakers to be more competitive with their foreign counterparts with US assembly plants.
Both union and Ford had agreed to provide 20 percent of its workers at plant could be entry-level, or second-tier, employees having exemptions for an axle plant and a parts plant near Detroit, and also for a new work “in-sourced” to Ford due to the slashed labor costs. Ford had surpassed the 20-percent level by January this year.
900 of the 1,550 employees are allocated for Ford’s Kansas City truck plant, while the remaining are sent to three stamping, axle plants and auto parts near Detroit.
The automobile company, however, not said about the number of jobs that are being added due to the brisk initial sales of its new F-150 model that went into the market for sale several months ago. According to the market reports, Ford’s new aluminum-bodied F-150 accounted for 18 percent of overall retail sales of F-150 model in January. The primary truck ‘F-150’ is the top-selling vehicle in Ford’s F-Series pickup trucks in North America. Moreover, these vehicles are also considered to be the key profit makers for the company.
The new workers will be paid the entry-level, or second-tier, wage of USD 15.78 an hour. Moreover, they will receive five percent wage increases per year under current contract terms until they reach USD 19.28 per hour. The current contract will be expiring later this year.
The company hired the workers who were promoted to a higher employment status in 2010 and since then they have been paid USD 19.28. After the promotion, these employees will be making USD28.50 with their new status.
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