Ford’s 1,200 new hires for its Transit vans came through Full Employment Council recruiting

The 1,200 new hires Ford Motor Co. was showing off Thursday morning in Kansas City came through the Missouri Career Center at the Full Employment Council.

“We recruited over 8,000 people for this plant,” said Clyde McQueen, chief executive officer of the council in Kansas City. “That was the group that they used to hire. Those people came out of that group.”

The Full Employment Council works to find full-time jobs for the unemployed and underemployed.

Ford announced it added the United Auto Workers members to help start a second shift at its Claycomo assembly plant to boost production of its Transit vans. The plant also makes F-150 trucks, running three shifts. Parts for both are made at the stamping plant, where an announcement ceremony was held.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and others on hand for the event hailed the plant’s growth — employment will top 6,000 by the end of this year — as a result of cooperation. Labor, management, government and the community pulled together five years ago to save and build up the plant’s work.

With the economy in decline, demand for trucks fell and Ford reduced its truck assembly to one shift. And Ford moved production of the Escape to a plant in another state.

“People in this room and in this state said, ‘Not on our watch,’” Nixon said, flanked by two Transit vans and watched by many UAW members, including new hires, assembled on the sidelines. “We were losing auto jobs as a country. Now we’re creating them by the thousands.”

UAW members accepted concessions in 2009 that helped the company’s finances as it struggled and rivals General Motors and Chrysler reorganized through bankruptcy proceedings. Changes at Ford included elimination of performance bonuses, cost of living adjustments and a jobs bank, as well as changes to a retiree health care trust.

Nixon connected the recent hiring to the efforts of UAW members along the way.

“For everybody who gets a paycheck next week who didn’t get one last week, there’s a lot of brothers and sisters who fought their way over the last 10 years to give you that opportunity,” the governor said to applause.

Ford has said it invested $1.1 billion in the Kansas City operations in part because of the quality of the workforce here. Todd Hillyard, with UAW Local 249, echoed the point Thursday.

“Every time we announce new product and growth, you guys are the reason for that,” Hillyard told the standing workers.

McQueen said the job impact extended well beyond the stamping plant and the auto assembly plant about a mile away. He counts jobs at suppliers in nearby Riverside, Excelsior Springs and Liberty, where the stamping plant sits.

“It’s such a story of what can happen when everyone works as a team,” he said. “This just gives me goose bumps.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM.