Ford suddenly halts F-150 production at Michigan and Kansas City plants; thousands of workers told to stay home. Here's why

Ford has stopped the F-150 pickup production at its Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan and Kansas City assembly plants due to a supplier problem, according to media reports. According to an internal memo, all production crews and shifts have been paused from Thursday, September 24, through Tuesday, September 29, 2026 and this has impacted thousands of workers who have been told to stay home. This decision leaves roughly 3,500 workers idle, according to an internal memo viewed by Reuters. The supplier problem that caused the latest disruption was unrelated to the aluminum shortage, the person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

At Dearborn Truck Plant, the automaker has put a halt to all production of the F-150 starting September 24 and it is planned to be down through September 30, Mark DePaoli, told the Detroit Free Press. DePaoli is the UAW Region 1A director and former vice president of UAW Local 600, which represents the hourly workforce at Dearborn Truck Plant. DePaoli said Ford said the timing was partly due to needing to do facility repairs as well as the supplier issue. He said there about 3,500 to 4,000 workers at Dearborn Truck Plant that have been told to stay home.

Ford has also stopped or reduced production of the F-150 pickup truck at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Missouri, on Friday. The factory makes F-150 trucks and Transit vans, UAW official Jim Fisher said.

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"We're not running today. They canceled the A shift," Fisher said of F-150 production, noting Transit production continues as usual. "Right now, they haven't canceled the B shift, which starts at 6 p.m., but they usually give me very late notice. We're literally hour-by-hour on parts."

When asked about the production halts, Ford spokesman Dave Tovar told the Detroit Free Press, "We don't comment on supplier disruptions." Fisher said since Sept. 1, Ford has canceled 15 shifts of F-150 production at Kansas City Assembly. The plant employs about 8,600 workers, about half of those people work on the F-150.

"Ford has been canceling various shifts due to what they say is 'lack of parts, ' " Fisher said. "I think it’s aluminum, but all I can tell you is we’ve barely worked the last two weeks."

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Since late last year Ford has had difficulty in maintaining the production of its F-150 to meet demand because of two fires at its main aluminium supplier, Novelis, which caused a shortage. The company uses aluminium in the bodies of a number of its vehicles, including its best-selling F-150 pickup truck. However, Ford's executives have told the market that they were on track to make up the lost production by the end of the year. Fisher stated that the company had planned to build about 67,200 model year 2026 F-150s by the end of the year. The automaker's vehicle sales were down about ‌10% ⁠year-over-year through August, with sales of the F-Series down 11%.

Since the disruption is occurring at the worst possible time, this is because analysts are forecasting a poor third quarter for US new car sales among the Detroit Three, with them losing the most market share in recent memory. It has in fact been predicted that Hyundai will sell more cars than Ford in the third quarter. The companies will release their sales figures next week. Ford manufactures its heavy-duty F-250 at the Kentucky Truck Plant and Fisher stated that he is not aware of this production being disrupted.