Ford delays reopening of North American plants

DEARBORN, Mich. - Ford has pushed back the date it wanted to reboot some of its factories in North America.

The Detroit automaker had planned to reopen an assembly plant in Mexico on April 6 and several other plants including one in Dearborn on April 14.

The company has not announced when the plants will reopen.

"The health and safety of our workforce, dealers, customers, partners, and communities remains our highest priority," said Kumar Galhotra, Ford president, North America. "We are working very closely with union leaders - especially at the UAW - to develop additional health and safety procedures aimed at helping keep our workforce safe and healthy."

A little more than a week after Michigan announced its first two coronavirus cases, the UAW negotiated with the big three automakers in Detroit to partially close its plants. However, a day later Ford, General Motors and Fiat-Chrysler completely closed their plants and planned to open them in April after multiple union employees were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Ford isn't completely closing down production, however. On Monday, the company said it was partnering with GE Healthcare to produce 50,000 ventilators by July 4. With support from paid volunteer UAW workers, the Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan will help build the medical equipment.

Designed to help patients struggling to breathe, ventilators are among the most important and least abundant equipment available to doctors.