Ford has told workers it will close its Norfolk, Virginia, truck factory during the week of 25 June 25, confirming shut-down plans first announced in April, union officials told a news agency.
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A memo signed by both the plant manager and the plant workers’ local union chairman was given to workers on Friday morning, according to the Associated Press (AP).
AP said the plant, which makes F-series pickup trucks, employed more than 2,300 people a year ago but the company said in October that it would cut that in half by early this year.
The factory now employs “over 1,000” people, AP reported, citing a union official.
The report said the plant was originally scheduled to close in 2008 but Ford brought forward those plans when it announced in September that it would close the plant by the third quarter of 2007, which begins on 1 July.
The move is being made to restore its North American automobile operations to profitability. Analysts have told the Associated Press that the plant’s location made it expensive and time-consuming to ship parts from midwestern suppliers.
According to Ford’s website, which does not accurately note current staff numbers, the Norfolk plant opened in 1925 and originally built Model T pickups and Model T and Model A cars.
Norfolk built a variety of cars until the mid-1970s and has been an F-series pickup source plant since 1948.
