Ford foundry in Brook Park to close after 58 years of service

[Dr.Phool]

Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Ford foundry in Brook Park to close after 58 years of service
Published: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 2:00 PM Updated: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 5:00 PM The Plain Dealer Robert Schoenberger, The Plain Dealer


BROOK PARK, Ohio -- For nearly six decades, thousands of workers in Brook Park toiled through intense heat to turn sand and iron into engines that powered Ford cars and trucks.

By the end of the week, the forges at the Cleveland Casting Plant will go cold. The demand for cast iron engines is nearly over.

The Ford plant that once employed more than 10,000 people will shed its final 300 workers.

(snip)

Satan's bakery

The casting plant was a miserable place to work -- hot and dirty, it was a place where mistakes got people killed.

"In the summer months it was absolutely brutal," he said in an e-mail from the University of Western Australia. "Some wise guy got to wearing a thermometer around his neck and would point gleefully as the temps rose above 110, 115 and higher."

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/ford_foundry_in_brook_park_to.html

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I worked there for two weeks in the summer of 1971. I had just gotten out of the Navy, in January, and started on the Railroad. I got laid off in July and went to work in the Brook Park Foundry.

Satan's Bakery indeed. It was hotter and dirtier than hell in there, and overtime was mandatory. I was there for two weeks, and got laid off for their summer re-tooling. And, I was experiencing my first recession.

In March, the railroad called me back the day before Ford. Guess where I went.

[madrchsod]

1. i worked in a steel mill and two steel forge shops...

but i never had the pleasure of working in a foundry...

these are the kind of jobs ya have to step up to hell to get cooled off...


a sad day for all those who gave their bodies and their lives to make american steel.

[doc03]

2. That's the old plant that made cast iron engines. They just

reopened another part of the plant a year or so ago to make the new ECO-Tech engines used in the Mustang, Taurus SHO and F-150 pickups. The plant isn't dead yet there are over 1000 working on the new engines. I toured the River Rouge plant in Dearborn this summer, at one time there were 100,000 people working there now I think they said there was around 300 at the assembly plant and maybe 1000 at the steel plant. The steel company I worked for had about 19,000 employees when I started in 1970 and now they have maybe 500.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. I lived in Brook Park until '92...

when I moved here. I cannot believe what has become of the plant that employed many of my neighbors.

[Cirque du So-What]

4. I have been in more foundries than I can recall

and I work in one currently. It can be a hellish environment - dangerous too - but I get satisfaction from improving processes and helping create a better product.

[lib2DaBone]

5. I worked there back in the 70's...I made more $$ than I make today with a college degree

I worked at the Ford Foundry in Cleveland back in the early 70's while in college. It was nasty, dirty, smelly, hot, unhuman work. But I got PAID! And I had benefits.. and they treated us like humans.. much more than I can say for today's Republican-Chamber of Commerce work force.

[grahamhgreen]

6. End outsourcing now. Free trade = slave trade

[melm00se]

10. i wonder if the Germans feel the same way

BMW has been ramping up production and hiring at their Spartanburg SC plant (+25% to 7,600) to build the X3 here and there may be plans to move production of the X1 there as well.

This increase has been almost entirely at the expense of German auto workers.

Mercedes and VW both have growing plants here in the USA

[CanonRay]

7. I always think of the potholes on Brookpark Road

from all the heavy trucks. At least I assumed that was the reason. There used to be a great bakery around there someplace. I was just a frequent visitor.

[waddirum]

8. foundry

One of my clients is a heavy engine foundry (I do energy
efficiency audits).  It is absolutely fascinating to see how
the whole thing gets made, from beginning to end.  Imagine
being on a grade school field trip, but with no chaperon and
lots of cool equipment.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. What was the foundry mark for this foundry?

Is this Cleveland Casting Plant The one with the mark CF with the F a part of the C? Or is it DIF? Not MCC?