CHICAGO | Ford expects to eliminate one production shift and about 600 temporary employees on Nov. 3 at its Chicago Assembly Plant, a company letter states.

"We believe the one shift operation will meet most of the customer demand for the products built in Chicago," Plant Manager Anthony Hoskins stated in a letter to workers dated Tuesday and obtained by The Times Wednesday.

The plant at the intersection of 126th Street and Torrence Avenue produces the Ford Taurus, the Ford Taurus X and the Mercury Sable.

Wednesday, Ford announced a 26.5 percent drop in August sales, compared to the same month in 2007, and it lowered its production forecast for the second half of the year. For the month, the company sold 155,117 light vehicles, compared with 210,958 a year earlier. Its SUV sales dropped 53 percent.

"Currently, the plant has approximately 600 temporary, non-regular employees who will continue working up to the target date for transitioning to a one-shift production operation," Hoskins states in the letter. "We expect a reduction in both the salaried and hourly work force, including temporary workers."

He added that any reduction in the hourly work force would be based on contractual provisions, and affected workers would be informed once planning for the cuts is complete.

"That pretty much sums up what Anthony intended to say, and I don't have anything to add," said Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari Wednesday.

The assembly plant employs about 2,200 hourly workers -- including the temporary part-time workers, also known as TPTs. Ford began hiring the temporary workers to fill vacancies created by the buy-outs of full time workers in 2006.

The company's 2007 labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union allows it to pay the temporary workers about $14.20 an hour -- half of a full-time UAW worker's pay.

Although they are members of the auto workers union, the TPTs have no job protection, according to the UAW national labor agreement with Ford.

The agreement specifies that full-time workers, who are laid off, are entitled to 26 weeks of unemployment and 48 weeks of supplemental pay, called "sub pay," which is 95 percent of their net pay minus deductions, unemployment benefits and other earned income.

Full-timers also are placed on "protective status" for two years and retain their seniority and recall rights.