Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - 9:16 pm:

quote:

End of a marvellous era for Windsor Casting
Chris Vander Doelen, Windsor Star

Today is a sad day in the history of Windsor's automotive industry.

Ford of Canada Ltd. will be pouring its last iron engine blocks at the Windsor Casting plant near Drouillard Road.

It's not just the end of an era but the end of a way of life in this city of metal benders. With only one shutdown in 73 years, there has always been somebody pouring hot metal near the Wyandotte underpass.

Ford's early proficiency at casting was one of the main reasons it became a world industrial power. Windsor Casting was the little Canadian brother to Ford's giant foundries on the Rouge in Detroit and in Cleveland.

The Windsor foundry closed once before, in 1981. But that shutdown was seen as just a local anomaly in a brief downturn for a company that was still a world leader.

This time it's different, and it's final. Both the city and the company are losing a piece of their emotional and financial foundation with this plant's closure.

And it's not just the Windsor foundry: Ford is getting out of the casting business altogether. It says it will close the Cleveland foundry later this year.

The company will survive, in some form. But it won't be the same vertically integrated giant.

quote:

May 29, 2007, 12:28PM
Ford Windsor Casting Plant Closes

© 2007 The Associated Press
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DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford Motor Co. ceased production Tuesday at its casting plant in Windsor, Ontario, as part of the automaker's plan to exit the business of casting engine parts.

The 500,000-square-foot plant employed about 450 people, making cylinder block castings for the company's 4.2-liter V-6 engines and crankshafts for the 4.2-liter, 5.4-liter V-8, 3.0-liter V-6, 4.6 liter V-8 and the 2.3-liter engines.

The closure comes two days after thousands gathered for a rally in Windsor, located across the Detroit River from Detroit, to protest the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Ford, which earlier this month announced closure of a casting plant near Cleveland, said it is moving toward having outside parts companies produce castings so it can focus more on items that customers are more likely to notice, such as engines and transmissions.

Workers at the 73-year-old Windsor plant were offered buyout or early retirement packages worth up to $100,000. The company also said it worked with the Ontario government to open an employment counseling center to help with job searches and training.

Ford has identified 10 plants that it will close as part of a restructuring plan designed to shrink its production capacity to match reduced demand for its cars and trucks and return to profitability. The company has said it will close 16 facilities by 2012. Ford lost $12.7 billion last year and $282 million in the first quarter.

The Windsor plant produced more than 50 million cylinder block castings and crankshafts for Ford engines, the company said. Ford announced last year that the plant would be closed.