- Ford is investing $6 billion in US manufacturing.
- The carmaker has a solid relationship with the UAW, forged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Ford is building EVs in the USA, including an upcoming electric F-150 pickup.
As electric vehicles take to the road in greater numbers — displacing their gas-powered ancestors — Ford is changing up its priorities.
In February, Ford said it would invest $29 billion in electric (and self-driving) vehicles through 2025, an aggressive timetable that requires a significant revamping of its US manufacturing footprint.
The company is spending $700 million to modify one of its most historically important facilities, the Rouge complex in Michigan, to build an all-electric version of the F-150 pickup truck. (The F-150 is part of the F-Series, the country’s best-selling vehicles since 1982.)
This shift has some auto workers worried that they might be out of a job, left behind by a new technology whose production could require less of a human touch. But along with EVs, Ford is also touting its investment in its American workforce — and the bragging is backed up by the numbers.
Still the industry leader for US jobs
The 1.7 million vehicles the carmaker made in America in 2020 outpaced the competition by 150,000, Ford recently announced. Even with eight weeks of idled production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the year saw Ford increase the portion of cars and trucks assembled and sold in the US to 82%, from 75% in 2019.
All this hasn’t come cheap. The company has committed to spending $6 billion to support 8,500 US jobs and for hourly workers and to make improvements at eight assembly plants and a range of engine, transmission, and components facilities. It’s already devoted $2 billion to add or retain workers for 3,000 positions, a stipulation of its contract with the United Auto Workers union, with many of those workers already hired to build the carmaker’s new Bronco SUV in Michigan.
Ford and its hourly labor force are on relatively good terms. “The workforce is excellent, and we have a great relationship with the union,” Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s President Americas and International Markets Group, told Insider in an interview.
The United Auto Workers and the company ratified a new four-year agreement in November of 2019, about a month after the union settled a strike with GM that dragged on for almost six weeks.
Ford’s 55,000 workers emerged from a short negotiation with assurances that their jobs weren’t going anywhere, although that was before the pandemic. More recently, a shortage of microchips that has beset the auto industry has forced Ford to engage in some temporary layoffs at several factories.
The UAW was rocked by scandal before and after the 2019 GM strike, with former President Gary Jones ultimately pleading guilty to federal charges of embezzlement, racketeering, and tax-evasion in 2020. His replacement, Rory Gamble, has sought to put the huge union back on course, and he seized an opportunity to work closely with Ford when the company shifted to making ventilators and protective gear during the pandemic shutdowns, as well as implementing safety procedures in the plants.
“He flawlessly rose to the occasion,” former Ford CEO Jim Hackett said of Gamble’s determination in an interview with Insider last year. “He saved a bunch of people’s lives and deserves a ton of credit.” (Hackett stepped down in late 2020, replaced by Jim Farley.)
Core to Ford’s values
Galhotra said that US manufacturing was “very core” to Ford’s values, and he noted that the company’s operations add $100 billion annually to US GDP, pegged at $21 trillion in 2020.
The 117-year-old automaker isn’t slowing down. As Tesla has rocketed up in value — its nearly $630-billion market capitalization is hundreds of billions higher than Ford’s, at $51 billion — and governments worldwide have begun the process of regulating the internal-combustion engine out of existence, Ford has embraced electrification.
Galhotra also said that other highly-touted vehicles were garnering increased funding. The new Bronco, with two- and four-door models built in the USA, is accounting for 2,100 of the jobs that Ford has added since the new UAW contract was signed. Ford is also building its popular Ranger pickup at the same factory, Michigan Assembly in Wayne, MI.
“We firmly believe in the US manufacturing sector,” he said. “We’re providing leadership in creating American jobs.”