Ford Chennai workers stoic about closure
Autocar Professional|1st June 2022
A day after Ford made it known that it was not going to revive its India plans through the production of electric vehicles, police were quickly deployed outside the Maraimalainagar plant near Chennai.
Sricharan R
Ford Chennai workers stoic about closure

"We were asked to come over to make sure nothing amiss would happen. So far, things are calm and peaceful," a cop told this writer. The DMK government clearly did not want to take any chances with worker ire spilling into the open and violence breaking out as a result.

"Employees are weary and it looks as if they have accepted the reality," said a shopkeeper who was quite certain that his own little retail business would take a hit. After all, these small traders who sell tea, biscuits and cigarettes have a ready customer base in the form of these 2,000-plus Ford workers.

June is the last month for the production of vehicles and it now remains to be seen what the Tamil Nadu government can pull off in terms of finding a buyer. When Ford announced last year that they were pulling out of India, the rumour mills were abuzz that Hyundai and Ola were among the potential buyers for the Chennai plant.

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