Fear over entitlements in sale of Ford casting plant

Andrew Mathieson
WORKERS fear the sale of a Geelong casting plant will jeopardise their entitlements, according to their union.
Ford has put its North Shore site on the market, placing 110 jobs under a cloud.
Australian Manufacturing Works Union senior shop steward Tony Anderson said a Queensland foundry had expressed an interest in purchasing the plant.
Toowomba Metal Technologies, a subsidiary of CMI Industrial, manufactures components for automotive, whitegoods, transportation and water-storage industries.
Mr Anderson said casting plant workers, who had an average 15 year’s employment at the factory, were worried a takeover could leave them out of pocket.
“My understanding is that CMI is not looking that flash,” he said.
“That’s fine for Ford to sell us but we’ve already seen companies faltering all over the place and workers scraping all over to get their redundancies.”
Mr Anderson said the union had negotiated with Ford while it was axing other jobs last year for the casting plant staff to walk away with full entitlements if the factory was sold.
“People are not happy because Ford won’t put in writing that it will actually cover what was negotiated as an agreement,” he said.
Ford spokesperson Sinead McAlary confirmed the company was in discussions with a potential buyer which she refused to name.
“Nothing further has happened on it other than initial discussions,” she said.
Ms McAlary refused to clarify the future of the plant workers’ jobs and entitlements.
CMI Industrial had not returned the Independent’s call for comment when the paper went to press yesterday.