Workers Lament a Plant's Falling Star
Workers Lament a Plant's Falling Star

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006

HAZELWOOD, Mo., Jan. 23 -- The morning announcement from headquarters did not come from out of the blue, but that did not stop the tears or stem the frustration. The Ford plant in this St. Louis suburb had dodged bullets before. Just maybe, thought the 1,400 workers, they could do it again.

"We were hoping to hang on or that something would come along," said Jay Parker, an 18-year plant veteran.

Instead, Ford Motor Co. turned off the sport-utility vehicle assembly line that makes Explorers to declare that Hazelwood would go idle in March and go out of business when the current union contract expires next year. The auto market had passed them by, the workers heard, and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Some were sad. Some were crying," said Cassandra Williams, 26, standing in the factory parking lot. "I knew it would come, but I didn't think it would be this soon."

Hazelwood yielded to clear-eyed calculations. Explorer sales were down 30 percent last year, and sales of the Mercury Mountaineer, a sister sport-utility vehicle produced here, are going nowhere. Retooling the plant would cost too much. Ford concluded that Hazelwood could manufacture nothing that made business sense.

Yet just last month, with workers still motivated to save their jobs, the factory was named the highest-quality Ford plant in North America and the one with the best cost controls, according to union and management officials. The push to raise standards came after Ford warned Hazelwood in 2002 that the plant would be eliminated by the middle of the decade.

Union and local management reckoned that their only chance in a ferociously competitive work universe was to prove to Ford that they could earn their keep, which with overtime averaged $65,000 annually per worker -- twice the statewide norm. The goal was to persuade Ford to assign another car or truck to the plant after the Explorer faded away.

"We told them we controlled our own destiny, that our livelihoods were in our hands," said Ken Dearing, president of United Auto Workers Local 325. "Everybody responded. We were doing everything correctly."

State and local government leaders wooed Ford with $17 million in incentives. A year ago, the plant axed its second shift, sacrificing 800 jobs. The line went idle for several weeks when supply outstripped withering demand, but Hazelwood met its quality goals and earned its performance awards -- only to get the ax.

"We were told by Ford Motor Company that if we continued to do the job, we'd get a shot," Dearing said in an interview. "We didn't get that shot. It's frustrating to everybody."

Still, Dearing said, until he has been told "point-blank" by Ford's leadership, he will continue to hope that Hazelwood has a future.

"It's fourth and goal," he said. "We're just looking for a shot to build anything we can possibly build."

Despite the grim news at Ford and the domino effect at local companies such as Lear Corp., which provides seats for the Hazelwood vehicles, St. Louis boasts brighter developments on the automotive front.

Nearby facilities controlled by the other two members of the Big Three U.S. automakers are prospering. DaimlerChrysler AG said last month that it would invest as much as $1 billion in its minivan and pickup truck factories in Fenton, Mo.

St. Louis continues to build more cars than any other city in the country besides Detroit, according to St. Louis University business professor Jerome Katz. Ford is expected to pay its hourly workers for roughly a year even if they do not work. Many have the skills to prosper in an industry that has not surrendered, Katz said.

"The reputation of the work quality at the Hazelwood plant is second to none. Some of those workers are going to be snapped up by DaimlerChrysler and maybe by GM," Katz said, adding, "The chance of them getting as great a deal as they had with Ford, that's probably not going to happen."

Over at Mattingly's, a bar down the road from the Hazelwood plant, workers who gathered for breakfast grieved.

"We had one of the ladies in here this morning crying and crying and crying because she lost her job," said waitress Cheryl Holland. "She's got kids. She's a single mother. What's she going to do?"

After winning the two Ford performance awards, employees joked darkly that the company forgot to send the third award, the one for best plant closing.

"You hated to hear it," Parker said of the announcement. "I was expecting to put in 12 more years and collect my retirement. It didn't quite work out."