Ford Motor Co. plans to close the Romeo Engine Plant and relocate or buy out an estimated 600 UAW workers, four sources with knowledge of the situation told the Free Press on Thursday.

Plant officials delivered the news to workers during early shifts less than 12 hours after a proposed tentative contract agreement was announced publicly, following three days of intense negotiation.

Notifications were made to hourly workers including electricians, millrights, pipefitters and machine repairmen around 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

"People are shocked and very disappointed," said one skilled tradesman who has worked in Romeo more than 10 years. "We have a small workforce now but, at one time, we had over 1,800 people. We believe our union failed us and management wasn’t much help."

He added, "We were once the best in the world, building the 4.6 liter V8 engine."

Currently, the plant builds engines of various sizes for different uses, ranging from the high-performance Mustang Cobra to the big F-Series pickup trucks. Sources with knowledge of the plans say the manufacturing work currently done in Romeo will move to other U.S. plants, that this is not about shipping work out of the country.

Plans to close the operation will not lead to job losses, sources emphasized.

Neither Kelli Felker at Ford nor Brian Rothenberg at the UAW would comment.

Hourly Ford workers in Romeo will be offered the same pattern buyout deal offered to traditional workers in Lordstown, and anyone who does not take the buyout could go "up the road to the Van Dyke Plant," the source said. "This is not like a Lordstown situation, where families were uprooted."

More: Ford, UAW reach tentative agreement on labor contract in 3 days

Most of the 1,600 GM workers have been relocated to jobs at other GM plants in other states. But some could not relocate for a job transfer. In the contract with the UAW, GM is offering assistance packages for those workers at Lordstown, including $75,000 payments for eligible production workers and $85,000 for skilled workers who retire. There are also buyout options for those not eligible to retire.

The plant closure in Lordstown, Ohio angered General Motors workers, who said the heartless announcement of the plan inspired them to strike the company and remain on strike for six weeks.

Sources close to the contract negotiations said the Romeo plant is the only U.S. operation targeted for closure by Ford.

"Everyone will be offered a job at Van Dyke Transmission," where Ford plans to add more work. "Equipment and people will be moving 14 miles away."

Anyone or anything not going to the nearby plant will be offered jobs at another Ford plant in the U.S. At issue for Ford is excess powertrain plant capacity.

Sources say this latest development is included in the early summary of the deal released by the UAW, which will be the focus of union leadership review on Friday: "The pattern bargaining strategy has been a very effective approach for UAW and its members to secure economic gains around salary, benefits and secured over $6 billion in major product investments in American facilities, creating and retaining over 8,500 jobs for our communities.”

More: UAW-GM deal calls for raises, $11K ratification bonus, Lordstown closure, pathway for temps

A Romeo plant worker asked angrily why Ford is willing to continue operations at the Ford Chihuahua Engine Plant in Mexico when a plant is now slated for closure in America.

Felker declined to comment.

The tradesman told the Free Press: "We have 200 people who probably could retire here, especially in the trades. They're older. I think, for some, they're ready to retire. If given the opportunity, they'll make the decision to go sooner. If they were going to wait another four years, they'd be glad to go in two."

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter. Jamie LaReau contributed to this report.

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