Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant will stop production for the next three weeks, putting its nearly 2,000 union workers and almost one-third of the Chicago Heights Stamping Plant's 900 hourly employees on layoff.

Bill Jackson, president of United Autoworkers Local 588 at the stamping plant, said the shutdown of the assembly plant, effective Monday, is because "there's no need for the volume."

The Torrence Avenue assembly plant produces the Ford Taurus, Taurus X crossover and Mercury Sable, all relaunched by the company in July. But sales of the cars haven't met expectations. During September, Taurus sales fell 30 percent, compared to the September 2006 sales of its predecessor, the Ford Five Hundred.

A total 17,912 new Tauruses were sold through September, while the Taurus X sold 7,097, including 2,517 last month. The company also has sold a total of 6,222 Sables, with 1,551 of the sales during September, according to the company's Web site.

"Total September sales were 189,863, down 21 percent compared with a year ago," it states. "Sales to daily rental companies were down 62 percent and sales to individual retail customers were down 15 percent."

Ford's spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment.

There is no correlation between the shut down and the ongoing negotiations between Ford and the UAW, Jackson said. However, there has been some speculation in the automotive media that the Chicago Assembly plant could be among those the company is slating for closure.

The plant operated at only 65 percent of capacity in 2006, and through September, its volume fell 22,000 vehicles from the year-earlier period.

Asked about the possibility the assembly plant is "on the bubble," Jackson said the same thing could be said about every Ford plant.

"No plant is immune," he said.

About 50 percent of the stamping plant's production volume is for the assembly plant, Jackson said.

Beginning Monday and lasting through Nov. 16, 240 of the stamping plant's workers will be on layoff, with the remainder of the production workers stamping body panels for other assembly plants. About half of the plant's workers are skilled tradesmen, who aren't affected by the layoff, Jackson said.

Both plants normally have lower production volumes in the early winter because "people don't buy cars at Christmas," Jackson said. However, the currently scheduled layoff is much earlier than normal, and another one is "very tentatively" scheduled for a few weeks near that holiday, he said.