Posted on: Friday, February 27, 2004
Ford shuts down symbol of postwar expansion
By Wayne Parry
Associated Press
EDISON, N.J. — Its workers built nearly 7 million cars and trucks in its 56-year history. It was the first place outside Detroit that a Lincoln was ever built.
Ed Sullivan hosted a Christmas party for its workers' children, and it grew to be one of central New Jersey's economic powerhouses, cranking out Mustangs, Mercurys, Rangers and other vehicles sold throughout the Northeast.
But today, Ford's Edison Assembly Plant will close for good, taking 900 jobs and a $70 million payroll with it. Many workers punched out for the last time yesterday, after the last two Ford Rangers rolled off the assembly line.
About 350 workers are retiring. They'll get a $35,000 lump-sum payment on top of their retirement pay.
Another 150 or so are transferring to jobs at Ford plants elsewhere in the country.
The rest will be laid off. They will be paid their full salary and benefits through 2007 under the union's contract with Ford.
Clyde West is retiring after 38ý years — just short of his goal of putting in 40 years at the plant.
"It's bad for a lot of people," said West, 63, of East Orange. "They have to transfer, kids got to go to different schools, families have to move."
Greeting friends at Richie's, a bar across the street from a rear entrance to the plant, West recalled his early days with Ford as a newlywed working the night shift in an era before widespread automation.
"It was tough, man," said West, who worked as a paint mixer. "Back then, we just had manpower and sweat. But we did it."
Just a few years up from the Deep South, West started at the plant for $3 an hour. "And I thought I was king of the world," he said.
At the end, he was earning $24 an hour, but is proudest of the fully paid benefits that his union preserved for workers through decades of contract negotiations.
At the Richie's takeout counter, a worker plunked down two tall Budweisers. He would give only his nickname, "Bones," and said he is transferring to a Ford plant in Ohio, taking his family with him.
"I got 15 years to go till retirement," said Bones, his head covered in a black bandanna with a skull and crossbones painted on the front. "I've put too much time in to just give up.
"But it's probably for the best. I can't afford to live here anymore."
Opened in 1948 and headed by the 28-year-old grandson of Henry Ford, the plant was part of the automaking company's major postwar expansion. It came on line along with facilities in St. Louis and Los Angeles.
"We intend to go more aggressively after business in the medium- and high-price fields," Henry Ford II said in an announcement issued shortly before the opening. " ... Our line of cars is being expanded and completely redesigned."
The Edison facility, known until 1980 as the Metuchen plant, played a major role in that effort. When it reached peak production a few months after opening, its 2,200 workers turned out a Lincoln or Mercury every two minutes.
But it fell victim to a cost-cutting program two years ago. The last two trucks that came off the line yesterday morning were raffled off to workers, who were then allowed to go home. Today, most maintenance and management workers will work for the last time.
Richie Superak, who has owned what he terms the "Ford bar" for 18 years, will try to make up for lost business by opening a brick-oven pizza restaurant next door. But he wonders how many of the plant's blue-collar workers, who know little else but automaking, will fare.
"Where else are you going to get a job making the kind of money they're getting?" he asked. "Now you're lucky if you get $7 an hour, and that's without benefits. Is this what the politicians want this country to become?"
