Ford Motor likely to lay off 200 workers in Canada

Ford Motor is likely to lay off around approximately 200 workers in September at a Canadian manufacturing plant in Oakville, Ontario, with the possibility of more layoffs in January, according to the media reports. 

The employee capacity of Ford’s Oakville plant is around 4600 workers. 

“We have been arguing as a local for the past several weeks trying to persuade the company from somehow avoiding this scenario, but to no avail,” Dave Thomas, President of Unifor Local 707, in Oakville, Ontario, said in a note to the members. 

The President of the Union had originally estimated the number of layoffs at about 185.

“As always, it’s based on a business decision and it all comes down to dollars and cents,” he added.

Ford attributed the layoffs to slowing sales of the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT, both of which are produced at the Oakville plant.

In addition, the Ford Edge is no longer being sold in some European markets, which the company also pointed to as a reason for the Oakville layoffs.

It can be recalled that the car -maker had announced a 10% cut to its global white-collar workforce in May, eliminating 7,000 jobs.