Ford announced today that St. Paul, Mn. and Norfolk will be closed. I had heard rumors of St. Paul, but Norfolk surprised me. I would have thought an F-150 plant would survive.
Ford to close Norfolk
- Thread starter highway star
- Start date
dieselphreak2K
Expert Expediter
Ouch, I figured that would be one of the last to go. I have dozens of relatives that left our small town to join the auto industry, they're all worried sick now. A couple have even asked me to teach them to drive a truck so they can fall back on something. At least the ol' Louisville plant is still there. My family has owned many many truck that has been born there.
That's sad. The Ford plant in Saint Paul has been part of the employment landscape for many years. There are fathers and sons and some of their relatives that have been working their for many years. If you told people you worked at the Ford plant, most people in town would have considered you to have a good job. It will be missed.
Gee wizz, Does not surprise me those locations mentioned are on the chopping block. Over the years I've delivered to all of them and, did not have ONE positive delivery experience, with Norfolk being the absolute worst. Seems like the "right of passage" in obtaining a pay (welfare) check caught up with them. No production begets no income you know.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
There is nothing sad about it, oh well more plants closing less work for us.
Look if Ford is to survive, they have to do it without the top heavy manufacturing processes. They already use some of the Japanese/Asian manufacturing in Europe, but can’t bring their manufacturing process up to the level it needs to be because of the UAW/CAW.
I met someone (yes Phil someone in a very high place at Ford) who took the time to explain to me and my fellow traveler what the real problems are and what they lack to achieve this flexibility. After the explanation, it made a lot of sense to us and was nothing like the dog and pony show that he did with the press a couple months ago. Their flexibility is still so far behind the times that they could slip in market share to the point they become a secondary manufacture of cars in their home market and the cooperation level with the UAW/CAW is so bad that they are struggling with the problem and solutions – which you all already know this.
I do blame the poor autoworker for a few things, one is no vision and the other is a lack of understanding what the real problems are and who to be part of the solution so they can continue to work. I had a great story to share with everyone about D-C and how it takes three people to do one job because of seniority and they really have no place to put them and it takes one supervisor to watch the three because the company don’t trust them to do the work unsupervised. I would be glad to do the job with no supervision at the lowest wage they are paying. Oh it was funny watching them work, what should take ten minutes to do, it takes them 2 hours – without breaks!
Look if Ford is to survive, they have to do it without the top heavy manufacturing processes. They already use some of the Japanese/Asian manufacturing in Europe, but can’t bring their manufacturing process up to the level it needs to be because of the UAW/CAW.
I met someone (yes Phil someone in a very high place at Ford) who took the time to explain to me and my fellow traveler what the real problems are and what they lack to achieve this flexibility. After the explanation, it made a lot of sense to us and was nothing like the dog and pony show that he did with the press a couple months ago. Their flexibility is still so far behind the times that they could slip in market share to the point they become a secondary manufacture of cars in their home market and the cooperation level with the UAW/CAW is so bad that they are struggling with the problem and solutions – which you all already know this.
I do blame the poor autoworker for a few things, one is no vision and the other is a lack of understanding what the real problems are and who to be part of the solution so they can continue to work. I had a great story to share with everyone about D-C and how it takes three people to do one job because of seniority and they really have no place to put them and it takes one supervisor to watch the three because the company don’t trust them to do the work unsupervised. I would be glad to do the job with no supervision at the lowest wage they are paying. Oh it was funny watching them work, what should take ten minutes to do, it takes them 2 hours – without breaks!