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January 26, 2004
The Ford Hazelwood Task Force is working on plans to diversify the region's job base and soften the effect of the loss of a production shift this year at Ford Motor Co.'s plant in Hazelwood.
"That's really where we're shifting our primary focus," said Patrick McKeehan, the task-force project director. The group, which has averted the closing of the Hazelwood assembly plant, includes state and local government officials, politicians, and business and labor leaders.
One concern is how local businesses that sell parts and services to the plant will be affected by lower production, McKeehan said.
Last year, the United Auto Workers union and the task force persuaded Ford not to close the Hazelwood plant by mid-decade. Though the plant will remain open through 2007, Ford said weak demand for the Explorer sport utility vehicle meant it would cut one of the plant's two shifts this year.
The plant, which employs about 2,750 people, also builds the Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Aviator sport utility vehicles.
The task force also will study ways to bring a new Ford vehicle to Hazelwood. That step is needed to safeguard the plant's future, McKeehan said.
Diversifying the area's employment base is critical, Hazelwood Mayor T.R. Carr said. The Ford situation shows that, "We have to diversify into other industries," he said. "If we can do that, we can offset what is hopefully a temporary reduction in employment" at the plant.
The ideal scenario would be to introduce a new product into the Hazelwood assembly plant and to return to two shifts, while also reaping the benefits of new businesses recruited into the area, Carr said.
The task force is conducting a major transportation study looking at highway and other infrastructure needs for the area surrounding the plant, McKeehan said. It also will study the needs of Ford and other businesses in the enterprise zone surrounding the plant as well as the impact of a supplier park proposed for the Robertson area, he said.
The task force is working with the St. Louis County Economic Council to devise a comprehensive economic development strategy plan for the area around the plant and St. Louis County, McKeehan said. It will focus on attracting new businesses and spurring job growth.
The study, which has been commissioned, should take three to four months to complete, he said.
Ford hasn't said when it will eliminate a shift at Hazelwood, only that cutbacks would occur toward mid-2004.
Last week, UAW officials first were told by Ford that an announcement concerning a layoff would be made Monday. Though the company didn't say how many people would be affected, the layoffs could have started as early as April 26.
Later in the week, however, Ford said it wouldn't have an announcement Monday.
Though Ford has yet to offer a timetable for eliminating a shift, the automaker is expected to notify employees soon - perhaps this week.
Even if Ford announces layoffs, the union hopes to avoid a shift reduction by attracting a new product to the plant or finding some other way to keep as many people employed as possible.
The automaker has said it plans to reassign most or all of the idled workers to other facilities. Ford has four assembly plants within about 300 miles of St. Louis: a car plant in Chicago; SUV and truck plants in Louisville, Ky.; and an SUV and truck plant in Claycomo, Mo., a suburb of Kansas City.
Explorer, the bread-and-butter product at the Hazelwood plant, remains the most popular SUV in the United States. Ford also builds Explorers at its SUV plant in Louisville.
In recent years, increased competition in the SUV market has reduced demand for the Explorer. Last year, Explorer sales fell to 373,118 units, down 14 percent from 2002. The drop put the SUV at its lowest sales level since 1994.
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