This kind of rise in worker productivity has helped to push up Ford's - and GM's and Chrysler's - profit margins. The automaker posted a $2.6 billion second quarter profit, up $338 million from the same period a year earlier.
Wage and retiree concessions by the UAW also helped to fuel Ford's soaring profits. The 1,200 new hires will start at $14 an hour, as opposed to the previous $28 an hour for new hires.
Ford says the added shift will also create 600 other Chicago-area jobs in parts suppliers - also UAW jobs.
The company says it is "on track to in-source 1,975 hourly jobs to Ford plants by 2012, exceeding [word missing] pledge to the UAW by more than 25 percent."
Ford worker David Schoenecker remembers hiring in at $3.56 an hour some 34 years ago. "It's looking a heckuva lot better now," he said. "I've been through at least two other downturns but I'm very optimistic now."
"We build Ford tough," said KK Evans, 18 years at the plant. "We take pride in building these cars. We are on the up now and it feels good."
Evan's friend Ida Henderson Small said she feels the economy is coming back and people will be buying those cars UAW workers take pride in building. She pointed to a new auto mall in her hometown Matteson, Ill., as an example.
Yet there were thousands who had lined up to get the applications for those 1,200 new Ford jobs. The company ran out of application forms at some locations, leaving people standing in line angry and disappointed. Perhaps a signal of the job desperation was seen at the assembly plant, where a handmade sign on the security shack entrance read, "Not hiring."
When one worker was asked if the assembly plant could make train cars for hi-speed rail someday, he answered, "Sure. We can make anything. We even made tanks during WWII."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
