A European favorite van goes on sale stateside in 2013.

The Ford Motor Company has reached a labor agreement with the United Auto Workers, as its U.S. workforce has ratified a four-year contract by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. The contract is a costly one for Ford reports Auto Trends Magazine, as the automaker has agreed to pay its 41,000 workers approximately $16,000 in bonuses over the next four years.

New Jobs

The Ford agreement also outlines the automaker’s manufacturing plans for the next four years. Specifically, four U.S. assembly plants will gain additional shifts to expand production capacity. These plants, located in Michigan, Kentucky and Illinois, will add about 5,000 of the12,000 new workers Ford has promised to hire by 2015. Affected models include the Ford Focus, Ford Explorer, Ford Escape and the Ford Fusion. Other jobs will be created as the company insources jobs from China, Mexico and Japan.

Ford will invest nearly $16 billion in its U.S. operations through 2015, including $6.2 billion in its manufacturing plants, a move that will allow the company to produce new or upgraded vehicles and components. Affected plants include Michigan Assembly in Wayne, Michigan; Auto Alliance International in Flat Rock, Michigan; Chicago Assembly in Illinois; and Louisville Assembly in Kentucky. Ford will also begin to produce medium-sized trucks at Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, once production of its E-Series vans ceases. The affected trucks are currently built in Mexico.

“By moving our commercial vehicle production in-house, we will be able to streamline and strengthen the engineering and manufacturing of our next-generation medium-duty trucks,” said Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company’s president of The Americas.

New Van

Ford says that production of its E-Series van will continue in certain variations through most of the remainder of this decade. The company has a new full-size van in the works, called the Transit, and that is expected to go into production beginning in 2013 at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant near Kansas City, Missouri. That van will join the smaller Transit Connect in targeting commercial customers.

The Ford Transit is already in production — in Europe — where it was first introduced in 1965 according to the Kansas City Star. More than 6 million units have been sold since, with assembly plants in the United Kingdom, China, Turkey and Vietnam handling production. Ford will be investing $1.1 billion in its Claycomo, Missouri, plant to produce the Transit and expects to add 1,600 jobs.

Photo: Ford Motor Company