LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Roughly 2,300 workers will be temporarily laid off at the Ford Assembly Plant in Louisville, according to the United Auto Workers (UAW). The plant will be converted to assemble electric vehicles during a multi-month closure.

What You Need To Know

  • Layoffs are expected at the Louisville Assembly Plant 

  • The United Auto Workers confirm it will affect roughly 2,300 workers 

  • The layoffs are expected to last several months, beginning at the end of 2025 

  • Workers will receive pay while they are off work

“I say it’s very significant and has been in the works, and it’s a part of Team Kentucky. We just got to come together and support that plan,” UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn told Spectrum News. “Ford Motor Company has not come out and said definitively, but we know that we’re planning on an eight to 10 month retool.”

Dunn said those affected will receive unemployment benefits.

Union workers will receive 70% of their normal pay after initial assistance runs out.

It’s a benefit workers bargained for with ford during the UAW strike in 2023.

“So we know and our membership knows through the life of the agreement volume one, they’re protected. But the main goal is to get everybody back to work and get full utilization of our workforce as they left,” said Dunn.

A Ford spokesperson told Spectrum News in a statement, “In 2023, Ford committed a vehicle for Louisville Assembly Plant. We will have more details to share later.”

Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, weighed said in a statement:

“This is a big win for UAW union workers in Louisville and for our entire community. Ford continuing to invest in the Louisville Assembly Plant means good-paying union jobs are here to stay in Louisville.”

The plant currently assembles Ford Escapes and Lincoln Corsairs.

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