Employees at the Nashville factory long known as “Ford Glass” are breathing easier now that new ownership is in place. For decades, the facility made windshields and windows exclusively for Ford. The …
Employees at the Nashville factory long known as “Ford Glass” are breathing easier now that new ownership is in place. For decades, the facility made windshields and windows exclusively for Ford. The factory has now been dedicated under its new name: Carlex. The new parent company is Japanese firm Central Glass, which has operated its Carlex auto glass plant near Knoxville for twenty years. United Autoworkers director Gary Casteel says that track record is reassuring to workers. Since the year 2000, the Nashville factory“s status has been in a state of flux. It was shuttled from one Ford subsidiary into another, then sold off to a start-up that won a contract with Nissan, but never quite gained a stable footing. Jobs were lost repeatedly. In its heyday, 3,500 people worked at the factory, which is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Today that number stands at 500.