Pastors seek ways to help Wixom Ford employees
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
 Published January 27, 2006

Detroit – Fr. Michael Savickas said he plans to remind parishioners affected by the planned closing of Ford Motor Co.'s Wixom assembly plant of the traditional symbol of the Church as an anchor.

"Our faith is a fixed point we can hold onto when things are changing around us," the pastor of St. William Parish, Walled Lake, said Monday after hearing the huge plant within his parish's boundaries would close as part of the automaker's "Way Forward" restructuring plan.

Faced with a declining share of the U.S. car market and losses on its domestic business, Ford announced a sweeping plan involving the closing of five of its production facilities, including the Wixom plant by 2008, with additional closings to follow.

Fr. Savickas said he knows about 100 of his southwest Oakland County parish's 2,350 families include Ford Motor Co. employees, but was not sure how many of them are employed at the Wixom plant. But he added that many more parishioners could be affected.

"This will probably have an even larger impact on people who work for other companies that are suppliers to the plant, or those in service businesses such as restaurants that depend on business from the plant's workers, because I'm sure Ford will try to help its own employees with things like salary extensions, benefits and re-training," he said.

But for Ford employees and others alike, Fr. Savickas said the parish will seek to provide such comfort and help as it can. He said he would be meeting with the parish's Christian Service coordinator and St. Vincent de Paul Society conference to discuss ideas.

Another possibility would be assistance for affected families with children in the parish elementary school, Fr. Savickas added.

The Wixom plant stands just outside the parish boundaries of St. James Parish, Novi, and its pastor was already asking parishioners to pray for the Wixom workers at last weekend's Masses.

Fr. George Charnley, St. James' pastor, said he believes the Church has a solid message of hope for those affected by the planned closing. "As Catholics, we're always hope-filled and relying on the Lord," he said Monday.

Sponsoring a jobs fair might be a way the parish could help, Fr. Charnley suggested. He said he did not know how many of the parish's 2,000 families included Ford Wixom workers or others who might be affected.

Ron Michels, 43, a pipefitter in the paint shop at the Wixom plant and a member of St. William Parish, said the announcement was not unexpected.

"I pretty much knew it was coming. It's been a two-year ordeal, ever since the plant went down to one shift," he said.

"Unless you'd been sleeping, it's not really a surprise, but it is a disappointment," Michels continued.

Michels said many employees would be cut when production of the Lincoln LS ends in April, and then the plant would continue to make the Lincoln Town Car until the second quarter of 2007, when it would close for good.

Michels said Ford workers would be eligible for unemployment, with supplemental pay from Ford taking them up to about 80 percent of what they were making for up to 40 weeks. Beyond that point, they would go into the company's "jobs bank."

As to how his family would adjust, Michels said he and his wife, Kris, would have to look at all their expenditures, including the tuition they pay for three children to attend St. William Elementary.

But he added they were "not in a crisis mode," and had "always been kind of thrifty."

Michels said his wife was already going to school to get a better job, and he could always use his pipefitting skills to do other kinds of plumbing work.

As to relying on his faith during possibly tough times ahead, he said that should be a constant in a person's life under any circumstances.

"You need your faith whether or not you keep your job – in bad times or in good times," he added.