Ford Motor temporarily lays off 600 non-striking workers at its assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan. This comes after other employees at the facility walked off the job as part of the United Auto Workers’ historic strike against the Big Three automakers. The labor union initiated targeted work stoppages at the plant, along with a General Motors factory in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio. The strikes were launched after failing to reach a new labor agreement with the automakers.
Ford states that these layoffs in Wayne are connected to the UAW work stoppage. This marks the first time in the union’s history that it has simultaneously launched strikes at all three automakers.
“This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection,” states Ford. “E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike.”
Wayne, Michigan, with a population of approximately 17,000, is a suburb located about 45 minutes west of Detroit. It mainly consists of blue-collar and middle-class families. The Ford plant employs around 3,300 workers, most of whom produce Bronco SUVs and Ranger pickup trucks.
UAW President Shawn Fain visited the Wayne plant on Friday and confirmed that the strike will continue until Ford, GM, and Stellantis (which owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and RAM, along with foreign brands such as Peugeot and Open) increase worker wages and improve job security.
Pete Gruich, a 56-year-old employee with 25 years of experience at the Wayne factory, describes working on the assembly line as “hectic, with no downtime.”
“When someone takes a day off at final assembly, it takes two or sometimes three people to do that job because the workload is overwhelming,” he added.
Gruich states that there is a division among employees based on wages, with some earning higher-tier wages and others earning less. Managers often promise lower-tier employees that they’ll be moved to the upper tier once a higher-paid worker retires, but this rarely happens, according to Gruich.
Tensions were high at the plant in the weeks leading up to the strike, according to Gruich. On Thursday night, employees from UAW’s Local 900 did little work and were eager to see how labor negotiations would unfold.
“We basically just sat the whole night until 10 p.m. when Fain decided to strike half of our plant,” he said.
Shortly after the strike was initiated, managers allowed employees to leave their work stations and Gruich notes that they were held in the cafeteria until midnight before being allowed to leave. At that point, nobody was permitted to go back onto the factory floor.
Once outside, the strike chants began, according to Gruich. He notes that younger workers were generally more animated, while those with more seniority observed the scene in silence.
As for why UAW leadership chose the Wayne plant to strike, Fain has not provided a reason. Gruich speculates that it may be because the facility also produces parts for seven other plants in the Midwest, which manufacture Ford Escape, F-250, and F-350 vehicles, as well as dashboards for the F-150. Although the parts manufacturing side of Wayne is still operational, Gruich suggests that the union could potentially ask those workers to walk out as well.
“After about a week or two of Ford not negotiating, they’ll eventually shut down the rest of the plant,” he predicts. “And that will, in turn, shut down six or seven other plants.”
