By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Ford Motor Co. will add 850 new jobs to its Rouge Center to help build the company’s new aluminum F-150 truck.
The jobs will be split among three facilities at the center. More than 500 will be for Dearborn Truck, almost 300 for Dearborn Stamping and more than 50 for Dearborn Diversified.
The jobs were created to help with the production of the 2015 F-150. The truck is set to be released within a few weeks, according to a Ford press release.
The hourly jobs will go toward Ford’s goal to add 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015 as part of 2011 UAW contract talks. Ford is on track to add more than 14,000 jobs by next year.
“The technology in the all-new 2015 F-150 is something the auto industry has never seen before, and our UAW members are poised and excited to build the next generation of America’s favorite truck,” said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president and director of the National Ford Department.
The center has had major upgrades done recently, the biggest since it opened in 2004. Ford replaced manufacturing equipment with the latest production technology in order to prepare for the production of the new truck.
The new F-150 will have many new features and upgrades to its interior and exterior. It is said to be stronger and lighter with the introduction of high-strength, military-grade aluminum alloys.
Ford sees the new F-150 as the next big improvement in the truck world.
“The new truck sets new standards for the future of tough – right down to how it’s built,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of The Americas, said in the release.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)