The Chicago Area Ford Motor Company will be creating 1200 jobs by adding a second shift. This is a welcome change to Chicago’s dwindling job force. The workers will be hired at significantly lower wages than union workers typically receive at a little over $14 per hour average.
The vacated jobs come from older workers who have left or retired. Newer workers will also receive reduced benefits.
As we’ve all known, or heard from the news, the United Auto Workers union, whose workers have enjoyed some of the highest manufacturing wages in the world. This hiring bout comes as an agreement to accept reduced pay for newly hired workers in an effort to help make the Detroit Three more competitive with foreign car makers that use nonunion labor in their U.S. plants.
Hiring a second shift of workers at Ford’s Chicago plant should trigger the hiring of entry-level workers. Besides the lower wage, new workers also get 401(k) accounts for retirement instead of pension plans that Ford is obligated to pay out for years.
