Ford's Broadmeadows facility has run out of at least one key component for V8 engines, and will have to shut down until its supplier resolves labor issues. The supplier, Coghlan and Russell Engineering, owes employees a boatload of money - in the order of 1.5 million-plus Austrailian dollars. Because of the outstanding payments, workers are holding out until they get the funds they're due, including pension and unemployment stipends. Ford and Delphi had offered to float Coghlan and Russell for a couple of months, but the workers rejected that proposal because the two companies would not cover pensions and unemployment obligations, citing the precedent it would set. The two-month loan would have given C&R time to examine a plan for getting out of trouble, as well as giving the automakers time to explore alternate suppliers.

Since an agreement could not be achieved, Ford and possibly GM production will be impacted. Both Holden and Ford have not been having an easy time of it in Australia lately. As hot as we are for their cars -- the boot-stomping Falcon and hotly anticipated Zeta platform -- both Holden and Ford have had to lay off workers. Coghlan and Russell is not the only supplier in dire straits, either. A fastener supplier threatened to shut Holden and Ford production down back in August by going bankrupt. Brake supplier PBR stepped in at the last minute and has been propping up that company, keeping production lines moving. If there's not enough parts now, we can only imagine the clamor that would ensue should supply fail just as US sales of the Oz-developed platforms gets underway.

Thanks for the tip, Simon

[Source: GoAuto]