Ford Motor Co. will lay off about 2,000 workers for almost six months this year as the U.S. automaker retools a Michigan plant to produce Ranger pickups and Bronco sport utility vehicles.
Workers at Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, west of Detroit, will be temporarily dismissed from around May 7 through Oct. 22, according to a
notice Ford filed with the state. The factory that’s been producing slow-selling Focus compact cars and C-Max hybrids is switching gears to begin making the
Ranger late this year and the Bronco
in 2020.
“Ford is not eliminating any jobs,” Kelli Felker, a company spokeswoman, said in an email. “Employees who are temporarily affected will receive approximately 75 percent of take-home pay if they have one year seniority. The affected employees all will return to work — either at Michigan Assembly or at another Ford facility.”
A Ford Motor Co. Ranger.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett is
shifting away from low-margin sedans and boosting production of trucks and SUVs as American consumers increasingly
spurn cars. Ford is moving production of the Focus compact to
China and the fate of its Fusion family sedan remains unclear after it canceled plans to build it in Mexico. Hackett has said profit will
decline this year as the automaker overhauls its lineup,
cuts costs and spends on self-driving and electric cars.
“I and my team are not satisfied with this level of performance,” Hackett
told analysts in January after reporting fourth-quarter earnings. “We see 2018 as the opportunity to prove to you that we can sharpen operational execution.”
Moody’s Investors Service changed its rating outlook on Ford to
negative from stable in January, citing “an erosion in many of the operating disciplines that it established following the 2009 restructuring of the North American auto sector.”
Ford shares rose 1.3 percent to $10.54 as of 12:30 p.m. in New York. The stock is down about 16 percent this year, trailing the 1.4 percent gain by the benchmark S&P 500 Index.