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Ford details construction hiring plans for train station, Corktown campus

chuckiechan

chuckiechan

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https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...ns-michigan-central-train-station/1734230002/

Detroit — Ford Motor Co. Tuesday said all 2,000 workers building its 1.2 million-square-foot Corktown campus, including renovation of its iconic Michigan Central Depot, will be unionized.

The Dearborn automaker estimates construction and restoration efforts will cost $740 million and will require 2.5 million man-hours, 51 percent of which must be done by Detroit residents. With a shortage of skilled trades workers in the city, however, Ford says it is evaluating whether or not it can meet that goal by each trade and will put together training programs for work that needs more people.

"It is difficult" to meet the 51 percent threshold, Rich Bardelli, program manager for the Blue Oval's real estate arm, Ford Land Co., said during City Council President Brenda Jones' Skilled Trades Task Force meeting at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58 building. "I think we all recognize it is difficult... . If we get on it right now and train people right now, there will be people in the pipeline over the next two years."

[snip]

Bardelli emphasized that Ford hopes the work that goes into constructing the Corktown campus can extend beyond late 2022, when it is expected to open.

"We're hiring for people not just for us," he said. "We're doing training and making sure the next generation,10, 30, 40 years down the road will have the ability to work."
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Will the Detroit democrats attempt to derail this to prevent the Corktown district from seeing gains in the Trump economy?
 
chuckiechan said:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/b...ns-michigan-central-train-station/1734230002/
Will the Detroit democrats attempt to derail this to prevent the Corktown district from seeing gains in the Trump economy?
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Ford Motor Co. Tuesday said all 2,000 workers building its 1.2 million-square-foot Corktown campus, including renovation of its iconic Michigan Central Depot, will be unionized.
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Will Republicans attempt to derail this to prevent the Corktown district from seeing gains in worker compensation from the thing they dread most, unions?
 
I expect without some government subsidy Ford will pull out from doing the construction within a year or two. Hard to justify spending 740 million when laying off tens of thousands for what amounts to a "image building" project.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Will Republicans attempt to derail this to prevent the Corktown district from seeing gains in worker compensation from the thing they dread most, unions?
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A private company volunteered to have unionized workers, they were not forced into using them.
 
In fact Ford already has been seeking government money for this project

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/09/11/ford-238-million-tax-incentives-detroit-campus/

Image Credit: Ford
Ford will pursue $238.6 million in tax incentives, including nearly $103.6 million from the city of Detroit, for its plans to redevelop the long-abandoned Michigan Central Station and establish an autonomous- and electric-vehicle tech campus in the city.

The Detroit Free Press reports that the figures were divulged during a presentation Monday night by the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Ford has said it plans to spend about $740 million to rehabilitate the blighted former train depot and other properties in the city's rapidly revitalizing Corktown neighborhood, money it would take from a fund already set aside to overhaul its Dearborn campus. The amount of federal, state and local in incentives it's seeking is consistent with what the automaker previously projected.

Ford purchased the massive train station for an undisclosed sum in June and held a big celebration event there to outline its vision of establishing it as an anchor of a campus for mobility innovation. The company is reportedly seeking four different types of tax abatements and must work quickly because a key deadline to submit proposals for one of them is Oct. 31.
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PirateMk1 said:
A private company volunteered to have unionized workers, they were not forced into using them.
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I am willing to bet that this 'private company' is going to get loads of public funding for this MDGA project. Expanding it to include 'worker training' is a dead giveaway that they will seek even more public funding.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Will Republicans attempt to derail this to prevent the Corktown district from seeing gains in worker compensation from the thing they dread most, unions?
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Puhhh-ffffftttt.

Unions are what drove them out in the first place. Pyrrhic employment package victories pricing union folk out of the world market... and their own jobs.
 
PirateMk1 said:
A private company volunteered to have unionized workers, they were not forced into using them.
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You need unions in skilled labor or you risk “institutional amnesia” among the wrench turners. You take some dude off the street and turn him loose on curtain wall at five stories and “call me when you are done”.

So the anti union screed is a misdirect by the anti Trumpers.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
I am willing to bet that this 'private company' is going to get loads of public funding for this MDGA project. Expanding it to include 'worker training' is a dead giveaway that they will seek even more public funding.
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That's probably true - haven't bothered to check the claims - but if you're building a big facility in the U.S. in 2018 and do not seek and get government subsidies, shareholders should fire you for incompetence. Do a google search - see what Alabama paid to get the Mercedes plant ($250 million in 1993) or what Tennessee paid to get several automakers (VW - $800 million in federal, state and local incentives) to locate in our state. Wisconsin reportedly offered Foxxconn $3 billion in incentives.

So, yeah, Ford will ask for and get major incentives, like every other auto plant that's moved or built a plant in the past few decades.
 
Lord Tammerlain said:
In fact Ford already has been seeking government money for this project

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/09/11/ford-238-million-tax-incentives-detroit-campus/
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Of course. It would be business malpractice if they didn't seek and get government money. If Detroit and Michigan didn't pay up, they'd have a long, long line of other cities/states that would "bid" on the facility.

I've thought many times that if I were dictator for a day, these things (and sports packages particularly) would make the top 10 list of stuff to eliminate by order from the office of the dictator. What's so irrational about it is it often puts existing businesses in competition with the new company, AND their massive government subsidies. A friend of mine watched as the city granted about $3 million in subsidies for a new business that competed directly with him, and his family business has been here for 50 years. He didn't mind that the new company came here, just having a big share of the competitor's relocation costs and rent paid for by the city for about 10 years.
 
JasperL said:
That's probably true - haven't bothered to check the claims - but if you're building a big facility in the U.S. in 2018 and do not seek and get government subsidies, shareholders should fire you for incompetence. Do a google search - see what Alabama paid to get the Mercedes plant ($250 million in 1993) or what Tennessee paid to get several automakers (VW - $800 million in federal, state and local incentives) to locate in our state. Wisconsin reportedly offered Foxxconn $3 billion in incentives.

So, yeah, Ford will ask for and get major incentives, like every other auto plant that's moved or built a plant in the past few decades.
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Yep, and in demorat land it is easier to get even more if you add the union label with an education included (federal?) kicker.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Yep, and in demorat land it is easier to get even more if you add the union label with an education included (federal?) kicker.
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And in Republicrap :roll: land if the plant decides to unionize, the state will threaten to cut off all subsidies. That's what Tennessee did to VW.

That's the price of accepting government money, and the restrictions for it are up to...the GOVERNMENT who provide the subsidies. Don't like it, don't put your hand out and whine that the money comes with strings.
 
JasperL said:
And in Republicrap :roll: land if the plant decides to unionize, the state will threaten to cut off all subsidies. That's what Tennessee did to VW.

That's the price of accepting government money, and the restrictions for it are up to...the GOVERNMENT who provide the subsidies. Don't like it, don't put your hand out and whine that the money comes with strings.
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Yep, best to play what the paying audience wants to hear.
 
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