Union generates plan for saving engine jobs

Andrew Mathieson
GAS-fired power from Geelong-made car engines could save the jobs of Ford workers under a radical union plan.
Car manufacturing unions are scrambling to sell to industries the value of Ford’s six-cylinder engines as electricity generators.
The unions hope the new use for the engines will save some of the 600 jobs Geelong will lose when Ford closes its six-cylinder plant in 2010.
Industry and Trade Minister Theo Theophanous told state parliament that excess heat from the engines – called cogeneration – should be used to “produce other forms of energy”.
“These engines, which have traditionally gone into Ford cars, are suitable for conversion to a stationary product which, using gas and with the attachment of a generator, would be able to generate electricity,” he said.
Labor Upper House MP Evan Thornley was keen about the potential for saving the jobs of workers at the Geelong plant.
“I believe there is an opportunity there for an industry to develop around that facility that will not only potentially continue the life of that facility for many years to come but potentially create a hub for a distributed co-generation industry,” he said.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Ian Jones warned a cogeneration industry in Geelong was still an “embryonic concept”.
“We’re looking at the possibilities for Geelong workers and Geelong manufacturing industry to continue to thrive,” he said.
Mr Jones said it was still “far too early” to estimate how many Geelong jobs the union plan could save.
Ford would no longer have any involvement in engine production after 2010 but its workers would have the expertise to “power things other than cars”, he said.
“We think that the in-line six at Ford is one of the best engines in the world for static use,” he said.
“It just seems, given this being the case and given we have one of the few manufacturing plants in the world that actually makes them, that seems it’s a bit silly to give it away.”