Back in early April, The Blue Oval announced that production of the all-electric North American Ford Explorer at the Oakville Assembly plant was being pushed back from 2025 to 2027 due to high battery costs, which is a bit of a problem for the workers at that facility, who are represented by the Canadian union Unifor. This is due to the fact that no vehicles are currently being produced in Oakville after the last Ford Edge rolled off the line there last month – meaning that workers could be staring at a roughly two-year lull. However, Unifor is actively working to shorten that deadline, it seems.
“Discussions with the company regarding the EV extension slowed during the last couple weeks of May,” said Marc Brennan, Unifor’s Ford Council Vice Chairperson. “However, as we move into June, we anticipate discussions to pick up as we work towards a final resolve. Our approach continues to be multi-layered. Further to our talks with the company there has been ongoing dialogue with all levels of government as we continue to highlight the need to shorten the downtime and discuss the affects the extended downtime will have on our members, their families, and our communities.”
Though Ford is continuing to retool the Oakville plant for EV production this summer as planned, its decision to delay the three-row Explorer EV for North America has wide-reaching impacts beyond Unifor workers at the plant, and figures to have implications on suppliers and government incentives as well.
As a result, Unifor has been in talks with Ford regarding ways to minimize this impact on its workers for some time now. As Ford Authority reported last month, some Oakville workers that have been laid off as a result of this delay will be able to move to other nearby facilities, too.
We’ll have more on Unifor and the Oakville Assembly plant soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
Best solution is to reintroduce ICE vehicles to Oakville ASAP with the option to build EVs in the future.
Apparently UNIFOR has NOT read the room!! EVs are quickly becoming dinosaurs and Ford is doing what most other manufacturers are doing and that is cutting back on EVs across the board.
When Ford was building the Ford Flex; there was no downtime. When it was time to redo the Flex , they just cut the model. Just look at the Used Flex’s , they are everywheres ! Call it a cult ; I call that it was what people need to move people or cargo. I still can outdrag an Explorer , anyday! Also they are fast when merging into traffic , and I mean the 287 H.P. model !