Ford Back in France
France and local governments invested €125 million in the project to build automatic transmissions, and Ford agreed to keep employment at its reacquired facility at 1,000 jobs for five years.
PARIS – Ford will start making 6-speed, front-wheel-drive, automatic transmissions in France July 4 on an all-new assembly line that will preserve 1,000 jobs in a factory the auto maker sold four years ago.
“Things change quickly,” Ford spokesman Fabrice Devanlay says after a political event at the site in Blanquefort, near Bordeaux. Ford sold the plant in 2009, although some work continued there, and bought it back early in 2011.
Employment once was 1,600, but it has dropped to about 1,000, including some 700 jobs considered temporary. Only 300 people are working on current projects.
However, efforts by the union and local government in the region to keep the plant going persuaded Ford to reinvest in the operation, and new equipment has been installed for the transmission project.
The facility, which was known as First Aquitaine Industries after Ford sold it, will become Ford Aquitaine Industries again on Aug. 1.
Ford of Europe Vice President Jeff Wood says the Ford logo, which was removed from the building when the auto maker sold the operation, will be reinstalled, a decision that has pleased union members at the plant.
France and local governments invested €125 million ($161 million) in the project, and Ford agreed to keep employment at 1,000 jobs for five years.
One of the Ford union workers at Blanquefort, Philippe Poutou, was a candidate for French president in 2012 for the New Anticapitalist Party. At the announcement event he told the Le Parisien newspaper he was satisfied, but he thought Ford’s production plans might not be enough to give work to all 1,000 employees.
The CFTC union says on its website that more investment is needed.
“As we told Ford’s vice-president, ‘Ford has to invest more. Ford has a great image in the world; its investments must be at the same level.’”
The 6F35 transmissions will be used in medium and large Ford cars in Europe, such as the Cougar and Mondeo, Devanlay says. But ultimately, Ford expects to export some transmissions to the U.S., because the Van Dyke factory in Sterling Heights, MI, that makes the 6F35 transmission now is near capacity.
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