Ford India Workers Gather Outside Sanand Plant, Protest Over Planned Closure

Sanand: Demanding to scrap the factory’s closure or be provide other jobs, hundreds of Ford Motor Co (F.N) factory workers protested outside the plant here in western Gujarat on Tuesday.

The workers, dressed in blue uniform, congregated outside Ford’s car manufacturing and engine-making facility in Gujarat’s Sanand city and said that the planned closure of the plant would lead to loss of their livelihoods.

“After working here for seven years, I am suddenly being told I do not have a job. What is my future?” a worker Anil Singh Jhala was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

“Our demand before the company and the government is that the plant should not be shut,” the worker added.

“If the plant is going to be shut, our request to the government is that when any other plant comes up here, we should get priority for jobs there at the same wage,” he told the agency.

Around 1,200 people are employed in the plant, a Ford India spokesperson said via a statement.

“We will be working with the unions and other stakeholders on measures to help balance the impact and to care for those directly affected by the restructuring,” the spokesperson added.

“We have started discussions with the union and have nothing additional to share,” he said.

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