
Ford Motor said it had temporarily laid off 600 non-striking workers at its assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, only hours after other employees at the facility had walked off the job early Friday as part of the United Auto Workers' historic strike against the Big Three automakers.
The labor union launched targeted work stoppages at the plant, along with a General Motors factory in Wentzville, Missouri, and a Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio, after failing to reach a new labor agreement with the automakers by a Thursday night deadline.
Ford said in a statement that the layoffs in Wayne are tied to the UAW work stoppage, the first time in the union's history that it has simultaneously launched strikes at all three automakers.