The head of Navistar’s Eastside diesel complex is worried that its 1,600 employee plant is going to lose its contract with Ford. If they can’t keep the contract with Ford than they will be forced to shutdown the 70 year old factory.
“The real key is: How do we keep the Ford business? If we don’t have it, there’s no plant there,” said Dan Ustian, Navistar chairman, in a conference call with reporters and industry analysts. “We’re going to do everything possible to keep that business.”
Navistar International is sueing Ford Company for stealing a Navistar designed engine. they say that Ford owes them hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and damages.
Navistar says it spent $11 million designing the engine that was to have been built in Europe and used overseas before Ford lost interest. In a lawsuit filed in Chicago, Navistar accused Ford of breaching a 2002 contract to produce a 3.6-liter diesel engine known as the Lion V-8.
The lawsuit claims Ford plans to build its own version of the Lion V-8 in Mexico. Ford said the claims were “entirely without merit.”