SHARONVILLE — The pain from Ford Motor Co.'s $4.1 billion restructuring will be felt at its transmission plant here, which will cut between 200 and 250 jobs next month.

        The automaker, which Friday announced plans to close five plants and eliminate 22,000 more jobs in North America, said the cuts will include one shift on a transmission line at the Sharonville plant, which employs about 2,200.

        (Latest update on Ford job/plant cuts)

        Ford's action will hit Ohio hard. Two thousand workers, about 12.5 percent of the company's work force in the state, will be laid off. One of the plants that's closing is in Brook Park, outside Cleveland.

        The cuts in Sharonville involve hourly workers on the plant's line which produces both 4-speed and 5-speed rear-wheel-drive transmissions for several Ford products, including the Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis and the new Ford Thunderbird and Jaguar S-type sedan.

        “This is never good news,” said R.D. "Sonny” Blevins, president of United Auto Workers Local 863, which represents hourly workers at the 44-year-old plant.

        While the job cuts are bad news for workers, the restructuring should help Ford's dealers in the long run, said Robert Reichert, who owns Kings Lincoln-Mercury and two other Lincoln-Mercury dealerships.

        “If it makes the company financially stronger and healthier, that will permit it to invest in new products — which is what we need,” he said.

        Mr. Reichert said he viewed the restructuring as positive step to improve the company's future prospects rather than a reaction to weaker car sales now.

        The new Sharonville cuts are on top of 370 employees who are out of work as a result of two separate layoffs in 2001. The company trimmed 250 of those jobs in September, when it eliminated an overnight shift for the plant's heavy-duty transmissions. Those transmissions are used on a variety of Ford's best-selling trucks, such as the F-150.

        And 200 Sharonville workers were laid off last winter because of softer vehicle sales, although some of those workers were subsequently recalled.

        “We regret we have to take this action,” Joe Koenig, Ford spokesman, said. He said the move was triggered by weaker sales of the cars using the powertrains built at Sharonville.

        “This is one of the facts of life in the automotive industry, that we've got to accept,” Mr. Blevins said. “Ford has a financial crisis which it has to deal with.”

        One worker, Lloyd Banfield of Trenton, said the buzz inside the plant Friday was of the job cuts.

        “We kind of knew it was coming,” said Mr. Banfield, who has worked at the plant for about a year. “It's a big blow to anyone. I feel sorry for the guys who are going to get hit.”

        He doesn't know if he will be among them but said the plant is the best place he has ever worked.

        Local 863 had expected job cuts in February, but Mr. Blevins said the union hoped they would be smaller than those announced.

        Easing the blow somewhat will be the UAW labor contract with Ford. It calls for laid-off workers to receive a combination of state unemployment and supplemental pay from Ford amounting to 95 percent of the worker's regular pay.

        But Mr. Blevins said the layoffs will be the first for workers on the flexible transmission line, which was launched in 1996 with a $180 million Ford investment.

        The Ford spokesman said the company planned no job cuts at ZF Batavia, the company's front-wheel-drive transmission plant in Clermont County. The plant, which is owned by Ford and German-based ZF Industries, produces transmissions for Ford's hot-selling Escape sport-utility vehicle.

        Ford also announced that it was increasing by 1,500 a voluntary retirement plan announced last year that trimmed 3,500 salaried jobs in North America. The Ford spokesman said some salaried employees at Sharonville could be included in the expanded voluntary retirement.

        U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, wrote Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. and asked to discuss keeping Ford's Ohio plants in full operation. Jobs will be cut at seven plants across the Buckeye state.

        “We have a highly skilled work force of unparalleled motivation and productivity,” the senator wrote.

        He asked Mr. Ford for his thoughts on what provisions, if any, in a federal economic stimulus package would increase demand for new cars and help keep the domestic auto industry competitive.

        A stimulus package has stalled in Congress because lawmakers cannot agree on a balance of tax cuts and aid to displaced workers. Mr. Voinovich said the economy will be a priority when the Senate reconvenes later this month.

        Enquirer contributor Dave Eck and Washington correspondent Derrick DePledge contributed to this report.

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