U.S. sales of the Transit rose 14 percent to 106,463 through the first nine months of the year but Ford is idling output of the large van due to lower commercial orders. Photo credit: REUTERS
Ford Motor Co. will suspend output of the Transit van at a Kansas City assembly plant for two weeks this month because of a slump in commercial orders for the top-selling large van.
Roughly 2,000 workers on two shifts at the factory will be temporarily laid off.
In a note to employees Wednesday, the plant’s labor relations office said workers will be laid off for two weeks starting Oct. 22. Workers on temporary layoff receive roughly 80 percent of their take-home pay.
“We are matching production with demand, as we always do,” Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in a statement.
U.S. sales of the Transit rose 14 percent to 106,463 through the first nine months of the year, outpacing the overall large van segment, but deliveries fell 15 percent in September. A majority of Transit sales are to commercial fleets, and order timing varies throughout the year, Felker said.
Workers who also build the F-150 pickup at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant are unaffected by the plans to suspend Transit output. The plant’s F-150 production lines were idled earlier this year after a fire at a Michigan supplier halted output.
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