leaders of the united auto workers union plan to meet with ford motor co. friday, after being taken by surprise by a tweet from president-elect donald trump disclosing the auto maker had shelved plans to move production of lincoln sport-utility vehicles from the u.s. to mexico, people familiar with the matter said. mr. trump wrote in the late-night twitter posting on thursday that he had received a call from ford chairman bill ford assuring him the u.s. auto maker would keep lincoln production at a plant in louisville, ky. while the plant builds higher-volume ford escapes along with the lincolns and wasn<u+2019>t actually slated to close, the auto maker confirmed it reversed course on its plan to move a smaller-volume lincoln suv production to mexico at a later date. for the uaw, retaining production of even lower-volume<u+00a0>nameplates is a priority, partially because it provides a hedge if the market should shift away from one of the other products uaw workers assemble. union officials have long railed against the north american free trade agreement, blaming it as a reason for a decline in high-paying auto assembly jobs. uaw president dennis williams last week said he was open to working with the incoming administration on reworking that agreement. ford continues to plan to separately move a substantial part of its passenger car production from michigan to a new $1.6 billion facility in mexico, although that move isn<u+2019>t currently expected to result in employment<u+00a0>reduction for the uaw. while that issue is likely to remain a sticking point between ford, the uaw and the president-elect, the lincoln announcement isn<u+2019>t going unnoticed. union officials only learned about the lincoln decision and the call between the chairman and president-elect through mr. trump<u+2019>s tweet<u+00a0>and are meeting with ford executives<u+00a0>to learn more about what transpired between the president-elect and the company in making this decision, according to people briefed on the matter. todd dunn, president for the union local in louisville, ky., said the uaw wasn<u+2019>t aware ford had plans to move lincoln output to mexico. rather, union members were told <u+201c>months ago<u+201d> that ford had committed to building the vehicle at the plant through the 2019 model year. after that, it would move the crossover to another, unspecified plant, to make room for building more escapes, he said. no job reductions were expected to result from the move and the plant was never in danger of closing, mr. dunn added.<u+00a0><u+00a0>ford built roughly 37,000 lincoln mkc crossovers last year versus 383,000 escapes, its second best-selling model, according to wardsauto.com. <u+201c>before last night, our plants were secure,<u+201d> he said.<u+00a0> a ford spokeswoman confirmed the plan now is to keep the lincoln output in kentucky beyond 2019. ford routinely meets with uaw officials to debrief them on planned production changes, often telling them well in advance of making such moves public. mr. trump was quick to take credit for ford<u+2019>s change of heart, saying he <u+201c>worked hard<u+201d> with bill ford to keep lincoln production in the u.s. write to christina rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com
uaw, ford to meet after donald trump<u+2019>s tweet on production plans  - wsj
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