Ford has announced that it will temporarily idle four plants over the next few weeks, as demand for the vehicles produced there has slipped.
The Michigan-based automotive giant has its eyes set on the Kansas City assembly plant, according to Reuters, where the F-150 is being put together.
The decision has been taken after sales of the pickup fell by almost 3 percent last month, and this, along with a 95 days’ supply found in dealers’ lots at the end of September, have forced the automaker to suspend production for a week. F-150 production at the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan won’t be affected by this settlement.
Ford will also suspend assembly of the Escape and Lincoln MKC, which are put together at the Louisville assembly plant, for two weeks, due to slow demand. Besides these two facilities, the automaker has the Mexican Cuautitlan and Hermosillo factories in its sight as well, where the Fusion and MKZ sedans, and the Fiesta, respectively, are being assembled.
Approximately 13,000 hourly employees will be affected by the temporary shutdowns, including 4,000 in Mexico and 9,000 in the United States. The automaker says that the US workers that have more than one year of experience will get about 80 percent of their normal paychecks during this time, but it’s not clear at this point how workers south of the border will be compensated.
“During our second quarter financial call, we said we expected the overall retail industry to decline in the second half of the year from the same period last year. We also said to expect to see some production adjustments in the second half – this is one of them. We continue matching production to meet demand“, said Ford spokesperson, Kelli Felker.
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