Dave Boucher, Phoebe Wall Howard and Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press
Updated Tue, September 26, 2023
Ford Motor Co. is "pausing work" on a multibillion dollar electric vehicle battery plant that garnered substantial praise from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others but prompted outcries from local residents.
“We’re pausing work and limiting spending on construction on the Marshall site, effective today, until we’re confident about our ability to competitively operate the plant," Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told the Detroit Free Press on Monday.
"We haven’t made any final decision about the planned investment there."
Earlier this year, Whitmer and Ford CEO Jim Farley announced a plan to invest $3.5 billion and create 2,500 jobs at the site, located just outside Marshall, a town a few miles east of Battle Creek. As part of the deal, Whitmer, state lawmakers and local officials agreed to provide the automaker a combined $1.7 billion in public subsidies.
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Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy said the governor remains focused on maintaining Michigan's edge in the auto sector and defended spending on large economic development deals like the one with Ford as a way to secure auto jobs in the state.
"Ford has been clear that this is a pause, and we hope negotiations between the Big Three and UAW will be successful so that Michiganders can get back to work doing what they do best," he said.
This latest development from Ford, involving the Marshall project, comes during the second week of a UAW strike on the Detroit Three automakers. Ford was the only company that did not get hit with expanded strike targets Friday because, UAW President Shawn Fain said, the Dearborn automaker was making significant progress during negotiations.
Ford may be closer than General Motors or Stellantis to getting a tentative agreement with the UAW. The timing of the shift on the Marshall project may be related to battery plant and joint venture deal points being debated among negotiators behind closed doors.
Ford declined to discuss details related to the Marshall project decision, including why the decision was made this week.
Several hours after Ford publicly shared its decision to pause construction, Fain bashed the automaker Monday evening.
"This is a shameful, barely-veiled threat by Ford to cut jobs," he said in a statement. "Closing 65 plants over the last 20 years wasn’t enough for the Big Three, now they want to threaten us with closing plants that aren’t even open yet. We are simply asking for a just transition to electric vehicles and Ford is instead doubling down on their race to the bottom."
Fain has been vocal about the importance of including the UAW in battery plant conversations with the expectation of not preventing the union from organizing and seeking competitive wages.
Whitmer has touted large electric vehicle projects like the battery plant Ford announced as a key component of her administration's approach to revitalizing the state’s economy.
After Ford passed over Michigan to build plants in Kentucky and Tennessee two years ago, Whitmer secured bipartisan support to create a new economic development fund that has since committed hundreds of millions to companies promising to create new jobs in the state. But she has encountered a growing bipartisan chorus casting doubt on her economic development approach.
House Minority Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, blasted Whitmer for Ford's construction pause at its Marshall site. "After failing to land other high-profile Ford deals, Gov. Whitmer gave away the store to bring Ford to Marshall. But with Democrats pushing policies that make Michigan less competitive, the $1.7 billion in subsidies and tax incentives still fell short," he said in a statement Monday. He predicted Michigan would lose out on jobs in the future and laid blame on Democratic policies.
Whitmer has celebrated Ford's planned investment. Earlier this month, Whitmer said Michigan was on the cusp of securing a dominant place in the transition to electric vehicles and said she was proud of her administration's work to secure battery investments like the one Ford planned near Marshall. "We're poised to be one of the leaders in the world when it comes to batteries," she told reporters at the Detroit auto show before walking around the floor to check out the latest electric vehicle models, including Ford's.
Economic development officials at the state and local level echoed Whitmer's optimism the project might restart after the end of the strike.
"We hope current negotiations between Ford and the UAW conclude in a mutually beneficial manner and we remain confident this project will continue as planned once these negotiations are complete," said Jim Durian, CEO of Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance, in a statement.
Otie McKinley, a spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, said the agency is "staying the course" at the Marshall site.
"We continue working closely with our partners in the community as Team Michigan moves forward on developing a world-class site that creates good paying jobs, brings supply chains home to Michigan and enables us to compete to make more in Michigan," McKinley said in a statement.
The project in Marshall prompted pushback from many in the community. Some offered unfounded fears about Chinese influence — Ford planned to partner with a Chinese battery company at the site — but others questioned the transparency of the process and substantial change it would bring to the community.
Glenn Kowalske and his wife are helping the Committee for Marshall – Not the Megasite, which is working to prevent the Ford factory from locating in the Marshall area. Reached Monday afternoon, Glenn said his wife was en route to the site and if work had actually stopped, it'd be fantastic news.
"I think, naive or not, I think we thought that if we worked hard enough and convinced people of the concerns that it could happen. We wouldn't have been going through this since December if we didn't believe there was a chance," Glenn Kowalske said.
Regis Klingler, a retired engineer who lives in Marshall and helps lead the committee, told the Free Press on Monday, “Any pause in the construction is good news to us. We hope it’s going to be permanent but time will tell what the real reason is. I suspect it might be the UAW strike, but I’m not sure.”
Chris Bowman, his wife and three children live in a house that backs up to the Kalamazoo River, directly across from the planned Ford site. For months, they say construction dust blew incessantly through their windows and the work woke them early in the morning.
“Everybody living next to it is going to see it as a huge positive, no doubt,” Bowman said Monday afternoon, reacting to Ford's decision to pause at the site.
Even if Ford ultimately abandons the project — still far from a certainty — he said he’s concerned a different large industrial project will swoop in instead. If there is a pause for any amount of time, Bowman said he hopes local leaders do more to actively engage their neighbors about the usage for the site.
“The people should deserve a voice in this process … no one considered whether it’s right, ethically. Maybe they’ll look at the situation, listen to the community and rethink the whole thing," Bowman said.
Janet Kreger, of Ann Arbor, co-founder and president of the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, told the Free Press that concerned members of the Marshall community reached out for support in January.
Preservationists concerned about the Ford project in Marshall see issues of land use, zoning and potential environmental damage to a nearby river. “Industrial development, when carefully planned, can have a positive impact on a community. This was an infusion of size, scope, people and infrastructure that was going to overwhelm a highly historic community in Michigan. Marshall is a small town," Kreger said.
Marshall Mayor Jim Schwartz, City Manager Derek Perry and City Clerk Michelle Eubank couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
This is a developing story. Check freep.com for updates as they become available.
Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com and on X, previously called Twitter, @Dave_Boucher1.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ford pausing work on massive Marshall project, spokesman says
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