Ford plans 6,000 new union jobs in three states

Ford Motor said Thursday it is planning to invest $3.7 billion in facilities across the Midwest, much of it for the production of electric vehicles, which the company said would create more than 6,000 union jobs in the region.

“We’re investing in American jobs and our employees to build a new generation of incredible Ford vehicles,” Jim Farley, the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Transforming our company for the next era of American manufacturing requires new ways of working.”

The announcement, made jointly with the United Automobile Workers union, detailed investments in three states. Ford said it would invest $2 billion and create about 3,200 union jobs in Michigan, including many tied to production of the new F-150 Lightning pickup, the company’s highest-profile and most important bet on electric vehicles.

In Ohio, Ford will spend more than $1.5 billion and create nearly 2,000 union jobs, primarily to build commercial electric vehicles in the middle of this decade.

The company also said it would add more than 1,000 union jobs at an assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo., that will produce commercial vans, some gas-powered and some electric.

The company had indicated some of the investments would be coming, like the expansion of production capacity for the F150 in Michigan, but had not detailed the magnitude.

The moves follow Ford’s announcement last year that it would build four factories in Kentucky and Tennessee — three battery factories for electric vehicles and a truck assembly plant — irking union officials and elected leaders in Midwestern states, who worry about losing manufacturing jobs to the South.

In addition to the new Midwestern jobs, Ford said it would convert nearly 3,000 temporary jobs into permanent full-time positions before the date that its contract with the UAW calls for — which is after two years of employment.

“We are always advocating to employers and legislators that union jobs are worth the investment,” UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement. “Ford stepped up to the plate by adding these jobs and converting 3,000 UAW members to permanent, fulltime status with benefits.”

Sam Abuelsamid, an auto industry analyst at Guidehouse Insights, said the changes were important as a way to help Ford attract and retain labor in a tight job market, while potentially helping the company avoid costly labor unrest during negotiations over a contract that expires next year as it spends billions on the transition to electric vehicles. A six-week strike by workers at General Motors in 2019 cost that company billions of dollars.

“I’m sure one thing Ford would absolutely love to avoid is the potential for a strike,” Abuelsamid said. “Keeping a positive relationship with the UAW now is to their benefit.”

But the investments appear unlikely to substantially diminish the broader threat that the shift toward electric vehicles poses to the autoworkers union and to employment in the U.S. vehicle manufacturing industry, which stands at around 1 million.

“It’s about changing the perception of what’s happening,” Abuelsamid said. “It’s a balancing act between your workforce and your investors,” who would prefer to see labor costs rise more slowly or decline at unionized automakers like Ford and GM.

Because electric vehicles incorporate far fewer moving parts than gasolinepowered vehicles, they require significantly less labor — about 30% less, according to figures that Ford has generated.