“It’s really unfortunate when politics get in the way of the facts,” Ford CEO Mark Fields stated Thursday in a special interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow.
Questioned if Ford would cut any U.S. jobs as part of its strategies to develop a new plant in Mexico, he responded; “Absolutely not. Zero. Not one job will be lost. Most of our investment is here in the US. And that’s the way it will continue to be.”
Earlier Thursday, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump told in an interview on Fox News that Ford planned to “fire all their employees in the United States and…move to Mexico.” He included that Ford would need to pay a 35% tax on any automobile that comes back to the U.S. if he becomes president. “And you know what’s gonna happen, they’re never going to leave.”
A Ford spokeswoman stated that Michigan factory workers who now construct the vehicles that are moving to Mexico will begin constructing other Ford designs instead.
Ford has 85,000 U.S. employees, up 50% over the last five years. It presently employees 8,800 individuals in Mexico, and the new plant will develop 2,800 extra jobs there.
Fields said that Ford’s labor expenses in Mexico are approximately 40% less than they are at U.S. plants, which are all unionized.
“That’s what it takes to compete in that [small car] segment,” he stated. And, “American [car buyers] are looking for good value.”
Despite Trump’s remarks on Ford, Fields refused to inform who he would vote for in the presidential election. However he did state that he’s not stressed over exactly what a Trump win could indicate for Ford.
“Whoever is in the White House, we work for them productively,” he stated.
1 comment
I believe Mark Fields about as much as I believe MSNBC – not at all.