Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) says that it will be laying off 2,000 employees, but only temporarily.
According to Ford, the layoffs will start around May, 7, 2018 and will last through October 22, 2018. The company says that this layoff will affect 2,000 of its hourly employees working at the Michigan Assembly and Stamping Plants at 38303 Michigan Ave., Wayne, MI 48184.
The reason behind the Ford layoffs is that the Michigan plant is getting an upgrade. The company will be retooling it to handle the assembly of the Ranger and Bronco lines of vehicles. F notes that the number of hourly non-skilled employees affected by the layoff is 1,999 and that there is only one hourly skilled employee that will be hit by the layoff.
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America represents the employees that are being affected by the Ford layoffs. The employees in the layoff have seniority and bumping rights that are protected by the agreement with the union.
“This is a temporary measure as we undertake extensive retooling to transform the plant to build the Ford Ranger, followed by the Ford Bronco,” Kelli Felker, a spokeswoman for F, told The Detroit News on Friday. “The affected employees all will return to work — either at Michigan Assembly or at another Ford facility.”
The changes at the F plant in Michigan means that it will no longer handle assembly of the Focus and C-Max. Assembly of the Focus will be heading to China, but it is still unknown what will happen to the C-Max.
F stock was up 1% as of Monday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
