Ford Motor Co. is creating 6,200 new hourly union jobs in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri that offer full health coverage on Day One as part of a new $3.7 billion investment that includes financial support from Michigan and Ohio policymakers, the company announced Thursday. “We’ve been working very closely with the UAW leadership on this,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, told the Free Press.In addition, nearly 3,000 United Auto Workers will go from temporary worker status to full-time with full benefits and pay raises, ahead of the schedule set by the union’s collective bargaining contract that expires next year, Ford said.”Contractually, we don’t have to do this, but we think it’s the right thing to do,” Galhotra said. “We believe and the UAW leadership believes that this is the right thing to do for those employees.”It’s a long-term investment that keeps the workforce strong, he said.Ford is also planning to immediately begin spending $1 billion over five years to improve the “work experience” of its U.S. employees based on feedback from the UAW — offering better access to healthy food, better security and lighting in parking lots, better break facilitiesand new on site charging stations for electric vehicles driven by employees, Galhotra said.Elected officials in Michigan and Ohio scheduled news conferences for later Thursday to discuss the deals. Galhotra was in Ohio for the announcements.“Ford is America’s number one employer of hourly autoworkers, and this investment only deepens our commitment,” Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford, said in a news release. “I am proud that we are inve …
Ford creates new union jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri – Detroit Free Press
