top Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Thousands expected to seek Ford jobs at Louisville Assembly

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Thousands expected to seek Ford jobs at Louisville Assembly

    July 7, 2011

    The announcement that Ford is ready to start offering $15.51 per hour factory jobs sent welders, salesmen, recent high school graduates, painters, warehouse workers and retail clerks to the downtown unemployment office Thursday to apply.

    About 200 trickled into the office in the hours following the mayor’s afternoon announcement. Today, officials are bracing for a flood of applicants for about 1,450 jobs through the July 14 deadline. A tent has been erected at the Kentucky Office of Employment & Training at Sixth and Cedar to process applicants starting at 8 a.m. today.

    Nearly all who heeded Mayor Greg Fischer’s announcement that applications were being taken Thursday, however, were told to come back today. Federal law requires that military veterans get the first opportunity to apply for new jobs processed through the state office.

    Those who apply will enter a lottery. Even if they proceed in the hiring process, they won’t be able to take a post until Ford members of the United Auto Workers on layoff or seeking a transfer get a chance to claim a job.

    Unemployed workers remain desperate for jobs that pay above minimum wage, and state unemployment officials said they expect at least 12,000 people to visit the downtown unemployment office, the only location taking applications. In addition to putting up a tent, Connie Schnell, regional program manager of the state Office of Employment & Training, doubled her staff to eight and beefed up security in the parking lot.

    “They will be out the door and around the corner waiting to get in there tomorrow morning,” Schnell said Thursday.

    Ford has been planning to add 1,800 positions at the Louisville Assembly Plant since announcing the start of a $600 million renovation last fall to make the next generation Escape sport utility vehicle. Because Ford UAW workers at other plants can claim one of the jobs, it remains unclear how many new applicants have a shot at one of the new jobs.

    In all, the plant will employ 2,900 when it reopens in late November. First in line to fill those positions will be 1,150 laid off from Louisville Assembly when the renovation began nearly a year ago. Another 300 Ford UAW workers expecting to be laid off from Indianapolis and Kansas City facilities have begun the process of transferring, according to Steven M. Stone, UAW building chairman of the Louisville Assembly Plant.

    That would leave about 1,450 new jobs for “production assemblers” starting at $15.51 per hour receive health benefits after clearing an eight month probationary period, a Ford notice said. UAW Ford workers returning to the automaker will resume earning their union scale of about $28 hourly.

    “It would be good to hire from the community,” Stone said. “First we have to see how many people we have apply from within.”

    “In this economy, these are good jobs. I expect the crowds to be massive,” Schnell said, adding that last month her office processed 5,000 applications for 275 similar posts working the line at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant.

    “I don’t have a specific number on how many new employees will be hired from the community,” company spokeswoman Marcey Evans said.

    Ford workers have a chance to refer a friend or family member for consideration for each new job, Evans added. Last week, each Ford employee in Louisville was mailed red referral slips, good for a friend or family member to have a chance to apply for the new jobs, Stone added.

    “This has been a long time coming,” he said of Louisville Assembly's long wait for a product to succeed the Explorer, which was redesigned and is now made in Chicago. “It will be good to employ people instead of laying them off.”

    While Fischer announced that citizens could begin applying Thursday, nearly all of the estimated 200 people who responded were turned away. Federal law requires that only military veterans can apply through the state office on the first day new jobs are posted, Schnell said.

    Chris Poynter, a spokesman for Fischer, said the mayor’s office was unaware of the limitation before he made the announcement Thursday. As people began arriving at the unemployment office in mid-afternoon, Schnell was on a conference call with Ford and city officials to make federal rules plain and plan for the week ahead.

    “We didn’t know the mayor was going to announce this until today,” she said.

    That frustrated Dilanjan Watson, a 32-year-old welder laid off since September. Alerted by a phone call from a friend who saw the news on television, Watson walked 1.8 miles, resume in hand, from his apartment in Old Louisville at First and Oak Streets to the Office of Employment & Training at 600 Cedar Street.

    “Are you a veteran?” security guard Don Peak asked Watson as he arrived sweating inside the state office. “Come back tomorrow at 8 a.m.,” Peak answered when Watson shook his head.

    Regardless of who fills the posts, new Ford jobs will generate as many as 10 additional jobs apiece in the region in the auto supply and other industries, said Fischer and Joe Reagan, president of Greater Louisville Inc.

    “This is the biggest expansion of jobs in Louisville by an individual company in years,” Fischer said at the press conference.

    Officials acknowledged that public access to the new posts is limited by returning union workers, their friends and family members, or UAW transfers from elsewhere. Still, they were jubilant about the news.

    “The bottom line, this is 1,800 new jobs for our city,” Reagan said.

    Laid off Ford worker David Brangers, 49, plans to return to the plant and gave his red referral slip to his son Jeremy, who just graduated from high school in Bullitt County. Since being laid off from Louisville Assembly two years ago, Brangers now works the night shift loading washer parts for General Electric at Appliance Park for $14 per hour — a wage that will double if he gets his Ford job back.

    “With all these announcements, people are saying we are really going to go back,” Brangers said. “It is starting to happen.”




    Those who apply will enter a lottery. Even if they proceed in the hiring process, they won’t be able to take a post until Ford members of the United Auto Workers on layoff or seeking a transfer get a chance to claim a job.

    a lottery for JOBS!!! for J O B S!!! pick you're name out of hat to see if you can buy food for dinner????
    8/4/2008 MAKE SURE AND VISIT Tobee's Blogs! http://www.bkforum.com/blog.php?32727-tobee43 and all are welcome to bk forum's Florida State Questions and Answers on BK http://www.bkforum.com/group.php?groupid=9

    #2
    So the working man in this country is so desperate for good work that he has to win a lottery to get the chance to be put on the waiting list for a job? What a brutish existence it is for the American proletariat! Time for a change ...

    Comment


      #3
      IMagine if we reinstated the tariff regime in place from the 1790's through the early 1980's - we'd have millions of jobs not a few thousand...coming back to the US.

      Comment


        #4
        i can't believe a LOTTERY....yes, it's true! it has gotten that desperate.

        right you r are IamOld! and they should impose higher taxes on every single company that is outsourcing...everyone one of that
        8/4/2008 MAKE SURE AND VISIT Tobee's Blogs! http://www.bkforum.com/blog.php?32727-tobee43 and all are welcome to bk forum's Florida State Questions and Answers on BK http://www.bkforum.com/group.php?groupid=9

        Comment


          #5
          I work in Louisville and live in the 'burbs.

          Let me tell you, the lines to apply for those jobs was LONG. People were camping out and what not.

          And...everyone around here knows it's highly unlikely you'll get a job at Ford if you don't know one of their employees. I can't name one person I know who works there and actually got the job on their own. It doesn't happen.

          I kind of felt sorry for the poor souls who actually waited in those lines to apply. Ford is probably the most discriminating employer in the whole city.

          Debbie Downer, signing out!

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by papie View Post
            I work in Louisville and live in the 'burbs.

            Let me tell you, the lines to apply for those jobs was LONG. People were camping out and what not.

            And...everyone around here knows it's highly unlikely you'll get a job at Ford if you don't know one of their employees. I can't name one person I know who works there and actually got the job on their own. It doesn't happen.

            I kind of felt sorry for the poor souls who actually waited in those lines to apply. Ford is probably the most discriminating employer in the whole city.

            Debbie Downer, signing out!
            wow, really??? and you are RIGHT there on the front lines, so i sure am taking your word as truth!

            i saw it on tv...all those people applying for the jobs it's so sad what this has all come down to. fighting for housing, jobs...next will be food.
            8/4/2008 MAKE SURE AND VISIT Tobee's Blogs! http://www.bkforum.com/blog.php?32727-tobee43 and all are welcome to bk forum's Florida State Questions and Answers on BK http://www.bkforum.com/group.php?groupid=9

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by IamOld View Post
              IMagine if we reinstated the tariff regime in place from the 1790's through the early 1980's - we'd have millions of jobs not a few thousand...coming back to the US.
              Sorry to burst your bubble, but no we would not.

              There are other countries where various types of tariffs are in place (such as UK) and have outsourced zillions of jobs as well.

              The vast majority of the outsourced jobs are customer-service related. Nothing that any type of import dues would change there. You can thank high-end data circuits and VoIP for that. Welcome to the other side of Internet.

              Also, even if a qualified American worker took a minimum-wage job putting together an iPod or a pair of jeans he/she would still cost a lot more than comparable Far East labor. Unless the tariffs you'd impose would be in the 10000% region...which would be utterly unsustainable, not to mention that no politician would vote for such a law.

              The only time that jobs will return to this country is when the minimum wage laws are repealed, and U.S. workforce is able to compete with their Far East counterparts. That will not happen for a variety of reasons, most of them political.

              Government - which is bankrupt as it is - would have to provide *permanent* motivation to companies willing to consider bringing their production back to U.S. Anything short of that, and you'd have an American version of Irish downfall from several years ago.

              So no, the outsourced jobs are not coming back. Not anytime soon.

              Good luck to us all.



              No person in their right mind files a Ch. 13 with lien strip pro se. I have.Therefore, please consider me insane and clinically certifiable when reading my posts, and DO NOT take them as legal advice of any kind.Thank you.

              Comment


                #8
                Hello Shark! On this, as gentlebeings, we will have to agree to disagree

                We cannot ever try to or should we compete with the slave wages of China, etc.

                Look, the tariffs are a polite way of saying keeping out imports. Jeans, Ipods, etc., makers will WANT to sell their stuff to a market of over 310 million people. What we have to do is make them make the stuff here. Period. It can be done.

                It is done in France, Germany, China, Japan, etc. THe UK sold out a long time ago, and they're in worse doo doo than the US...

                This country has lived on debt - and people...since the 80's because real wages have stagnated. Now for us of course personally, and for the nation, the cows have come home to roost (or whatever bad cliche of your choice)...

                Originally posted by shark66 View Post
                Sorry to burst your bubble, but no we would not.

                There are other countries where various types of tariffs are in place (such as UK) and have outsourced zillions of jobs as well.

                The vast majority of the outsourced jobs are customer-service related. Nothing that any type of import dues would change there. You can thank high-end data circuits and VoIP for that. Welcome to the other side of Internet.

                Also, even if a qualified American worker took a minimum-wage job putting together an iPod or a pair of jeans he/she would still cost a lot more than comparable Far East labor. Unless the tariffs you'd impose would be in the 10000% region...which would be utterly unsustainable, not to mention that no politician would vote for such a law.

                The only time that jobs will return to this country is when the minimum wage laws are repealed, and U.S. workforce is able to compete with their Far East counterparts. That will not happen for a variety of reasons, most of them political.

                Government - which is bankrupt as it is - would have to provide *permanent* motivation to companies willing to consider bringing their production back to U.S. Anything short of that, and you'd have an American version of Irish downfall from several years ago.

                So no, the outsourced jobs are not coming back. Not anytime soon.

                Good luck to us all.



                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by IamOld View Post
                  Hello Shark! On this, as gentlebeings, we will have to agree to disagree

                  I don't have a problem with agreeing to disagree, but will throw a few more thoughts out there...

                  We cannot ever try to or should we compete with the slave wages of China, etc.

                  At the current standard of living, absolutely not. But...

                  The standard of living in China, India etc. is going up...

                  The standard of living here is going down, and we're just at the very top of the slide, so tie your seat belt...

                  At some point in the game people will get desperate enough to start competing with Far East...

                  Look, the tariffs are a polite way of saying keeping out imports. Jeans, Ipods, etc., makers will WANT to sell their stuff to a market of over 310 million people. What we have to do is make them make the stuff here. Period. It can be done. It is done in France, Germany, China, Japan, etc.

                  While it is being done in a variety of places across the globe, people still buy junk made in Far East over there, tariffs, import duty, VAT/MwSt or not...last time I checked, the only PC manufacturer that actually has a plant in any of the countries you mention(apart from China) is Panasonic...

                  You don't really expect to enter a German store and buy a pair of Adidas sneakers with "Made in Germany" tag, do you?

                  Everyone and their seventh cousin twice removed has outsourced the production to Far East. It would be almost impossible for most of these businesses to reverse that trend. They would sooner go belly up. The decision-makers have already made their money quite some time ago...


                  THe UK sold out a long time ago, and they're in worse doo doo than the US...

                  I don't think that UK is necessarily in worse shape than us, and definitely not for the same reasons. But that topic would require a thread for itself...

                  I lived over there when Lady Thatcher was cracking down on labor unions - coal miners being the best known case of them all - and there are quite a few things in our current environment that remind of these dim, dead, days...

                  Unemployment was sky-high and tens of thousands of young folks were leaving the country...

                  Yet no one wanted to accept the jobs paying lower wages.

                  Immigrants from various parts of the world did - bringing the cost of labor down in the longer run.

                  Honda walking out on BLMC after several years, rather than dealing with high-wage/low production/relaxed QC nightmare of unionized auto industry over there...sure they took an ample financial hit, but they would've been hit even harder had they stayed...

                  The bottom line is that no one in their right mind wants to produce anything in the U.S. unless they have to. There is way too much regulation, and red tape to be cut through.

                  If I ever won a *really* big amount of money playing some outrageous lottery, and was bored enough to be interested in starting a business, I'd *never* start one here, unless the things were to change dramatically...there are many places where the climate is far friendlier for enterprise...

                  My $0.02 only...

                  This country has lived on debt - and people...since the 80's because real wages have stagnated. Now for us of course personally, and for the nation, the cows have come home to roost (or whatever bad cliche of your choice)...
                  Good luck to us all.
                  Last edited by shark66; 07-16-2011, 08:38 PM.
                  No person in their right mind files a Ch. 13 with lien strip pro se. I have.Therefore, please consider me insane and clinically certifiable when reading my posts, and DO NOT take them as legal advice of any kind.Thank you.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Hi Shark - I too travelled in my - ehem - previously employment days :-) I have to admit to you that I think Thatcher sold the "crown jewels" as the Queen herself has said to have said. Yes the UK had problems, but Thatcher wasn't the solution...and in Germany I did find Addidas made there...I think it's a matter of us in the US simply having come to accept the narrative - the reality - created by the banksters. I say, let us take our reality back!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by IamOld View Post
                      and in Germany I did find Addidas made there...
                      What year was that, if you don't mind me asking?

                      Good luck to us all.
                      No person in their right mind files a Ch. 13 with lien strip pro se. I have.Therefore, please consider me insane and clinically certifiable when reading my posts, and DO NOT take them as legal advice of any kind.Thank you.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        It was during the early to mid-90's when I was a globe-trotting WB (well division thereof) bureaucrat :-)

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by IamOld View Post
                          It was during the early to mid-90's when I was a globe-trotting WB (well division thereof) bureaucrat :-)
                          That makes sense.

                          Try finding a pair of German-made Adidas sneakers today...

                          Let me spare you the grief: don't even bother. There won't be any. There were none over the past decade or so...

                          Good luck to us all.
                          No person in their right mind files a Ch. 13 with lien strip pro se. I have.Therefore, please consider me insane and clinically certifiable when reading my posts, and DO NOT take them as legal advice of any kind.Thank you.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hubby was laid off from Ford last year and it was amazing that all of the people in his department that got laid off we all 50 years and older... Ford is well known for doing this time and time again...ugh


                            Originally posted by papie View Post
                            I work in Louisville and live in the 'burbs.

                            Let me tell you, the lines to apply for those jobs was LONG. People were camping out and what not.

                            And...everyone around here knows it's highly unlikely you'll get a job at Ford if you don't know one of their employees. I can't name one person I know who works there and actually got the job on their own. It doesn't happen.

                            I kind of felt sorry for the poor souls who actually waited in those lines to apply. Ford is probably the most discriminating employer in the whole city.

                            Debbie Downer, signing out!
                            Chapter 7 filed 11/4/10 ---- 341 Meeting 12/1/10 ---- Discharge 1/31/2011.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Fallonedward View Post
                              Hubby was laid off from Ford last year and it was amazing that all of the people in his department that got laid off we all 50 years and older... Ford is well known for doing this time and time again...ugh
                              i'm so sorry to hear!!

                              hopefully something will come up soon for him. terrible about the age. i know we were there and laid off as well. now, no one wants to hire us as we are "TOO" old.
                              8/4/2008 MAKE SURE AND VISIT Tobee's Blogs! http://www.bkforum.com/blog.php?32727-tobee43 and all are welcome to bk forum's Florida State Questions and Answers on BK http://www.bkforum.com/group.php?groupid=9

                              Comment

                              bottom Ad Widget

                              Collapse
                              Working...
                              X