Ford to Idle 700 Workers

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Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it plans to idle 700 workers at Wayne facility due to a slump in sales of small cars, hybrids and electric vehicles.

The layoffs will begin June 22 at the automaker’s Michigan Assembly Plant, where the Ford Focus, Focus ST, Focus Electric, C-Max hybrid and C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid are assembled, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Hourly workers will be idled in stages, and the first 200 may quickly find temporary vacation fill-in jobs at some of the automaker’s other 15 assembly plants in southeast Michigan. Salaried workers will will be redeployed to other locations, Ford spokeswoman, Kristina Adamski said.

Automakers have difficulty selling fuel efficient vehicles when gas is cheap. Focus sales fell 14.5 percent in March, and sales of the C-Max Hybrid were down 22 percent during the same period and by 31 percent during the first quarter.

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• Jobs: With Low Gas Prices, GM Reveals Decision on Bolt
• As Gas Prices Tumble, GM Plans to Idle Workers

Adamski said the plants that assemble larger vehicles are doing well.

“We can’t build enough trucks or SUVs,” she said.

Ford UAW President Jimmy Settles said in a statement that the layoff was “unfortunate,” but “not completely unexpected” given the cyclical nature of the market.

Ford has added more than 14,000 U.S. jobs in the current four-year union contract, which promised 12,000 jobs over the life of the agreement.

Much of that investment has been in the assembly of the all-new aluminum body Ford F-150 pickup.