This is not the first time the union has complained that US manufacturers are attributing new models to Mexican plants. At the end of 2019, UAW also claimed General Motor for its “lack of commitment” to build new vehicles in its US factories and that it would instead designate the Mexican plant in Ramos Arizpe to produce the Blazer. A demand similar to the one now facing the Blue Oval Company.
Ford was not immediately available for comment that UAW lawsuits could affect its plans.
The new vehicle that Ford has assigned to Mexico will share an electrified platform similar to that of the Mustang Mach-E, so that, according to the manufacturer, its production at the Cuautitlán plant “will provide manufacturing and engineering efficiencies.”
Although Ford has invested nearly $ 11 billion in several of its North American plants, including one in Mexico and two in the United States, to produce its first electric models, the United States does not welcome Ford’s allocation of a second. vehicle. of the Ohio election.
During labor negotiations in 2019, Ford pledged to spend $ 900 million for the factory to rebuild it for a new model it would begin building in 2023.
“We hope that the company will fulfill its contractual commitments with this member, and when it does not, we will take action,” Kariem wrote in a letter to Ford, which was reproduced in several US media outlets.
Ford said in a statement Wednesday that it is committed to the Ohio plant and highlighted recent investments in the United States.
Mach-E was Ford’s first electric vehicle to go into production. The original plan was to produce it at the Flat Rock plant, Michigan, but at the end of 2017 the company announced a change of plans: to send production of the new battery-powered SUV to Mexico and focus on the production of autonomous vehicles at the assembly plant. Flat Rock. “This will allow us to deliver significant savings, capital and physical space,” Ford said at the time.