What an up-and-down week it has been for the Canadian auto industry. After the province of Ontario guaranteed $75 million for Ford to keep jobs at its Windsor plant, the struggling Michigan automaker has announced 500 cuts at its Oakville, Ontario, plant, which produces the automaker’s crossovers, the Flex, Edge, Lincoln MKX and upcoming MKT.
Ford will eliminate the third body and paint shift at the Oakville plant. According to a Ford of Canada spokesperson, the automaker will promote retirement with a $75,000 allowance and a $35,000 credit towards purchasing a new Ford vehicle in order to reduce the number of employees. Ford of Canada says that the job cuts are due to production cuts caused by faltering demand for crossovers in the United States.
Ford had been planning to add a third assembly shift to the plant, but those plans are now off.
