In a statement, the UAW says it’s confident Ford will find a use for the Wayne plant when Focus and C-Max production ends in 2017.
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Citing a note given to UAW workers and confirmation from Ford, the News reports that the production is expected to begin leaving the Wayne, Mich. site in 2018.
The move comes as a host of automakers are building new plants in Mexico instead of the USA and raises questions about what products could replace the Focus – a vehicle that symbolized Ford’s transformation in 2011 from company dependent on truck sales to one that aimed at building better passenger cars.
“In spite of this announcement, we want to ensure both the membership of Local 900 and the community that UAW members will continue to produce world-class quality vehicles with pride and passion now and beyond 2018, which remains a tradition of all United Auto Workers”.
“We will move production of the next-generation Ford Focus and C-MAX, which now are built at Michigan Assembly Plant, beginning in 2018”, the company said in a statement.
“We now are reviewing several possible options for the Focus and C-Max and will share details once our studies are complete”, Ford spokeswoman Kristina Adamski wrote in an email.
Moving the production of the compact cars could signal a coming slowdown in small vehicle sales, or a shift in strategy for the global automaker.
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In April, Ford announced it was laying off 673 hourly and 27 salaried employees amid slumping sales of smaller and more fuel-efficient cars. It is unclear where Ford will build the Focus and C-Max when the next generation of those products debut. That change was hailed by President Obama in a visit to the plant earlier this year.
