The move comes as a host of automakers are building new plants in Mexico instead of the US and raises questions about what products could replace the Focus – a car that symbolized Ford’s transformation in 2011 from company dependent on truck sales to one that aimed at building better passenger cars.
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Talks between the UAW and Ford will begin July 23rd.
Ford made no announcement as to where it would build the next-generation Focus and C-Max for the United States market, though less than three months back the company said it would spend $2.5 billion on engine and transmission plants in Mexico.
Jimmy Settles, the Vice President of the United Auto Workers says expressing his surprise and despair about the decision that “It’s very, very unusual”, adding that the workers were visibly upset when they were told about the news.
Ford Motor Co. announced that it will be closing the assembly line for Ford Focus and C-Max wagon in Wayne, Michigan in 2018. The manufacturing of these small cars will be shifted out of the USA, as indicated by UAW officials.
UAW Michigan Assembly Plant Chairman Bill Johnson said the planned move will be a main topic during negotiations.
The industry trend is to build less profitable small cars there because of Mexico’s lower labor costs. But he was confident that Ford will find a replacement product for the Wayne, Michigan plant which now produces gasoline, hybrid, and all-electric versions of Ford’s small cars.
GM has said it is laying off 260 workers and cutting production at the Detroit-area Orion Assembly plant where it makes the Chevrolet Sonic.
Even though the automobile major has not disclosed the site, the company said that it is facing difficulties in producing these vehicles profitably.
Focus sales fell 16 percent in June and 3.2 percent in the first half of 2015.
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Ford’s Focus is produced presently in different locations all over the world.
