Japan Fallout Reaches Kentucky

If it hasn't reached your town yet, it will. This is just the beginning.

The Kentucky Truck Plant will furlough about 3,600 workers next week because parts from disaster-stricken Japan are starting to run out, and high fuel prices have hurt retail sales of its mainstay F-Series Super Duty trucks, Ford Motor Co. senior sales analyst George Pipas said Friday.

Kentucky Truck manufactures F-250, F-350 and larger pickup trucks in addition to Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.

“The supplier is making parts, but the number of parts coming over has been diminished,” said Pipas. He declined to name the Japan-based supplier or the truck components involved, saying “It is a supplier relations thing. We are not going to throw our supplier under the bus.”

Laid-off workers will get unemployment benefits and supplemental income paid by Ford under its contract with the United Auto Workers. In all, workers can expect to receive a paycheck worth roughly 65 percent of the gross amount they would have received had they worked next week, UAW Local 862 President Rocky Comito said Friday.

Toyota, which has told its workers there would be production cuts due to parts shortages, but hasn’t said when, where or how long, would only commit to its current North American production plans through next week, Dow Jones Newswires reported.