United Auto Workers Vice President Jimmy Settles shared an open letter on Thursday, announcing that production of the Ford Focus and C-Max would not continue at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne beyond 2018.
According to Settles, production of the Ford Focus and C-Max compact vehicles would shift southward instead, to be built in Mexico.
But according to Autoblog, Ford Motor Company isn’t confirming that part of the story. The automaker released a statement, saying:
“We will move production of the next-generation Ford Focus and C-Max, which currently are built at Michigan Assembly Plant, beginning in 2018. We actively are pursuing future vehicle alternatives to produce at Michigan Assembly and will discuss this issue with UAW leadership as part of the upcoming negotiations.”
The news that the Ford Focus compact car and C-Max compact MPV are to leave Michigan Assembly sometime in 2018 comes sometime after the news broke that Ford Motor Company plans to invest some $2.5 billion into its operations in Mexico. Just days after that, reports surfaced that Ford would be laying-off some 700 workers from the Michigan Assembly Plant, with the automaker citing slow sales of both compact vehicles.
Still, Mr. Settles ends his open letter on a note of optimism, saying that UAW leadership remains “extremely confident that a new product commitment will be secured during the upcoming 2015 negotiations and that the Michigan Assembly Plant will maintain a full production schedule.”
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