Report: Ford Has Deal to Sell Saline Plant to French Company

The Associated Press is reporting that Ford Motor Co. says there is a tentative deal to sell the plant in Saline to French components maker Faurecia SA, which is owned by French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen SA.

The plant makes instrument panels, floor consoles and other parts for Ford vehicles.

ACH was spun off by Ford in 2005 when the automaker took back 17 parts plants from Visteon.

The represents most of ACH’s 2,300 workers, according to the AP. Attempts to reach UAW Local 892 leadership were unsuccessful. In a recent letter to union membership, Local 892 President Mark Caruso said it was the union’s goal to make the Saline plant a Ford facility once again.

“We need to stay focused on our goal to get the blue oval back out front where it belongs and pull our ACH workers into the fold. We must stop Ford Motor Company from selling off our jobs to companies that pay their workers non-living wages. Regardless of the outcome we will always fight for workers’ rights.”

Ford has a long history in Saline. Henry Ford bought Schuyler’s Mill, now the site of , and the mill become one of Ford’s famous “little industry” factories. Workers processed soybeans and used the oils for plastics and paint. The plant closed in 1947. In 1966, Ford Motor Co. moved a parts plant from Brooklyn to Saline. In 2000, the plant became a Visteon plant. In 2005, facing bankruptcy, Visteon transferred ownership of the factory back to Ford, which spun off the parts plants as ACH. In 2007, ACH announced it had reached a deal to sell the Saline plant to Johnson Controls, but the deal fell through.

Earlier this week, the plant was in the news when it was cited as a reason why Ford can’t keep up with demand for the new Focus. The Associated Press reported that machinery that makes the skin that covers dashboards at the plant was working “intermittently” and that the company was flying in parts from Europe to keep the assembly lines moving.

That report was denied by a Ford sales analyst on a conference call Tuesday, according to Mlive.com. The low supply for the Focus and Fiesta was due to stronger-than-expected demand, according to Ford.