Last week, Ford Motor Company held an “Investor Day,” where the automaker laid out its plans for the coming years – including an announcement confirming that Ford will move all small-car production from the US to Mexico over the next two to three years.
Once again, presidential candidate Donald Trump weighed-in, claiming on Fox News that Ford was planning to “fire all their employees in the United States and… move to Mexico.”
The claim is, of course, completely false, and Ford CEO Mark Fields didn’t mince words when he appeared on CNN to respond publicly. Asked whether the automaker would be cutting any US jobs, Mr. Fields responded: “Absolutely not. Zero… Most of our investment is here in the US, and that’s the way it’s going to continue to be.”
Ford’s announcement last week pertains to the Focus and C-MAX models, which will be shifted from the automaker’s Michigan Assembly Plant in 2018 to a brand-new, $1.6-billion facility in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. “But at the same time… we’ll be replacing those products with two very exciting new products,” said the executive.
Ford’s CEO said that “it’s really unfortunate when politics get in the way of the facts, and the facts are: Ford’s investment in the US and commitment to American jobs has never been stronger.” He cited the 28,000 jobs the automaker has created over the last five years, and that Ford has the more hourly workers producing more vehicles in the country than any other automaker. Ford’s hourly US workforce is 85,000-strong; in Mexico, the automaker employs some 8,800 hourly workers, and its new investments will create an additional 2,800 new jobs there.
“We are very committed here [in the US], and those are the facts.”
Comments
HOrse SH!t! I will never buy another Ford the rest of my life and will scorn and ridicule anybody I see who is driving one! If Mark Fields and his cronies think this is such a great deal, they should ALL move to Mexico, make thier living working there and raise their families there