Scandalous Shutdown of Ford's Transmission Plant in France

Not long ago, Ford officially stopped production at its transmission production facility known as Ford Aquitaine Industries (FAI) in France. Founded in 1972, the FAI has now ceased to exist within the framework of the Ford’s restructuring strategy. This measure came as no surprise for employees of the plant, as Ford announced its intention to close the FAI at the beginning of last year due to low demand for automatic transmissions (6F35) produced at the facility.

6F35 transmission which was produced at FAI

However, the storm of protests from trade unions, local officials, and employees of the plant was caused by the fact that Ford stopped the production one week before the date stated earlier. At the plant closure, the FAI staff number amounted to 850 employees.

According to trade union representatives, FAI employees were treated dishonestly and Ford representatives did not trouble themselves to clarify the situation. It is said that some workers didn’t manage to suppress their tears, as they faithfully worked in the factory for many years and considered the conduct on the part of the plant management to be outrageous. Moreover, it is claimed that Ford, in fact, did not have any economic-related reasons for closure of the plant, as the financial performance of FAI didn’t incur any losses. It is assumed that the FAI management decided to take advantage of the lower level of the situation monitoring on the part of union representatives in summer time to shut down the production facility ahead of specified time.

News report from the FAI plant

It should be noted that the French government encouraged Ford to sell the plant to Punch Powerglide, as the Franco-Belgian company expressed a strong interest in a potential deal and promised to keep at least a half of the current FAI staff employed, but the negotiations with the American automaker came to nothing. A Ford France representative also confirmed that all production activities at FAI were stopped. All workers were told to take their belongings and leave the territory of the plant. It should be pointed out that for some time before its closure FAI had been operating at a minimum level of its production capacity.

The French authorities made several attempts to influence the American automaker on issues related to money compensations to dismissed workers and future of the plant infrastructure. It is claimed that the plant closure will have a negative impact not only on former workers of FAI, but also on numerous businesses and sub-suppliers, which actively cooperated with the transmission plant. It is also interesting to point out that previously France paid approximately $17 million to Ford as a part of financial aid, but even in the light of recent events the government agreed with the impossibility of any reimbursements.