LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Ford Motor Co. will not reopen Kentucky Truck Plant in eastern Jefferson County on April 14 as previously planned.
The automaker said Tuesday that its U.S. plants -- including Kentucky Truck and Louisville Assembly Plant -- are shuttered indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic. That means more than 13,000 workers between the two Louisville plants will be out of a job for the foreseeable future.
"Please save your money and watch your spending if you do not have a savings to draw from," Herb Hibbs, the building chairman for UAW Local 862 at Louisville Assembly, told workers in a memo.
Ford had said that Kentucky Truck was among 6 key U.S. plants that would reopen on April 14, while there was no restart date for Louisville Assembly. Hibbs said in his memo that it could have been April 20.
“The health and safety of our workforce, dealers, customers, partners and communities remains our highest priority,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of North America, in a news release. “We are working very closely with union leaders – especially at the UAW – to develop additional health and safety procedures aimed at helping keep our workforce safe and healthy.”
The exception is Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Ford plans to make as many as 50,000 simple ventilators for coronavirus patients within 100 days.
The factory will be staffed by 500 United Auto Workers union members who have volunteered to work on the project, Ford said on Monday.
