DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will idle its Michigan Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit for more than five months starting in May, temporarily laying off 2,000 hourly workers while it retools the plants to build the 2019 Ranger pickup.
The Wayne, Mich., plant will reopen Oct. 22 for Ranger production, according to a filing with the state of Michigan.
Ford will end production of the Focus sedan and C-Max Hybrid crossover May 7, the automaker said in a notice in compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. All affected employees will either return to the plant in October or transfer to another plant.
During the downtime, the workers, represented by the UAW, will receive roughly 75 percent of their normal pay if they have at least one year of seniority.
In a statement, Ford stressed that the move was a “temporary measure.” The Detroit News reported the WARN notice filing Friday afternoon.
Ford had not previously revealed specific details about the timing of the changeover, saying only it would end car production at Michigan Assembly in mid-2018. Ford ended production of the C-Max Energi, a plug-in hybrid, late last year.
Ford unveiled the 2019 Ranger at the Detroit auto show in January. It has not released details about the Bronco SUV, which will be assembled alongside the Ranger and go on sale in 2020.
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