Status of 6000+ Ford employees uncertain
SAO PAULO – Closing Brazilian operations after “years of significant losses,” Ford’s exit will mean a total direct and indirect loss of 118.864 jobs, along with lost wages totaling some R$2.5 billion per year. The yearly impact on the tax base will be R$3 billion, according to Brazil’s Departamento Intersindical de Estatística e Estudos Socioeconômico (Dieese).
The closings will drop the country’s production capacity by as much as 500,000 vehicles per year, out of a total of 5 million produced in Brazil, according to National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea).
Ford employed 6,171 workers in Brazil and the status of most of them is currently undefined. Layoffs at the plants in Taubaté (SP) and Camaçari (BA) were halted by the Labor Tribunal in injunctions responding to lawsuits by the Labor Department, Ministério Público do Trabalho (MPT). Ford has said a total of 5,000 jobs will be affected in the restructuring in Brazil and Argentina.
Gauging a comparison, Ford laid off 7,000 workers in its 2019 global restructuring.
By Milan Sime Martinic