Ford is boosting its workforce at the Dearborn, Mich., plant by 850 employees to help meet demand for the new F-150 pickup truck.
The surge in jobs commemorates "the commitment to excellence that the hardworking men and women of the Rouge demonstrate every day," said Jimmy Settles, head of the Ford department of the UAW, as quoted by the Detroit Free Press.
"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," Settles said.
The new jobs, which will be allocated between three Ford facilities, more than fulfill a pledge that the automaker made to the United Auto Workers union three years ago, Bloomberg News reported. Ford has now hired more than 14,000 workers since 2011; the UAW agreement called for at least 12,000 by 2015. The automaker will begin a new set of negotiations with the UAW next year.
The F Series, which is a top seller for Ford, sold 763,400 in 2013 and is estimated to account for more than 90 percent of Ford's profits worldwide, according to the Free Press.
The automaker began overhauling its Dearborn, Mich., plant in August to prepare for production of the new F-150. Scheduled to be in showrooms by the end of this year, the 2015 F-150 is expected to be more than 700 pounds lighter than the traditional steel-bodied version.
The last 2014 F-150 to be built at the Dearborn plant was put together on Aug. 22, and Ford crew members have been preparing the plant to manufacture the lighter 2015 model. Some 1,100 trucks will come into the factory to deliver the new tools needed to manufacture an aluminum F-150, a Ford executive said in August.
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