USPS Trucks Made In Mexico

From Sen. Brown’s Office:  Senator Urging Navistar to Keep Jobs in Springfield, Demanding Answers as to Why the Company Shifted USPS Truck Production to Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 27, 2020 — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is urging Navistar to return full production of United States Postal Service (USPS) trucks back to its Springfield, OH facility, after the company laid off nearly 300 workers at the plant.
In a letter to Navistar CEO Troy Clarke, Brown pressed the company to renew its commitment to the Springfield facility, after workers informed his office that they were no longer assembling USPS trucks that are typically made there. Navistar has instead moved assembly to the Escobedo plant in Mexico, and sent down USPS decals for the Mexican facility to affix to the trucks.

Click to read letter

After Brown’s office inquired about the production move, Navistar stated that the reason for the shift in production was a result of the General Motors strike that supposedly disrupted the supply chain.

However, USPS informed Brown’s office that Navistar had a contract to produce tractors for USPS and that “only 590” of those tractors would be produced in Mexico to ensure the company could meet the Postal Service’s delivery deadline. USPS also stated that the contract is for 1,579 tractors and that “the balance before and after will be satisfied as planned from the Ohio facility.”

However, in talking with Springfield workers, it has become clear that is no longer the case, and it suggest that Navistar could have returned production of the USPS trucks to Springfield after the GM strike but chose not to. Brown is demanding answers as to why his office has received inconsistent information and pushing Navistar to continue investing in its Springfield facility.

“In discussions with employees at the Springfield plant, my office learned that the workers believe approximately half of the USPS tractor order has been assembled in Springfield; 30 percent has already been assembled in Mexico; and the remaining 20 percent is scheduled to be produced in Mexico. This is different than the information I received from the USPS, and it suggests that Navistar could have returned production of the USPS trucks to Springfield after the GM strike but chose not to,” Brown wrote.

In addition to demanding clarity on the number of USPS trucks that are supposed to be assembled in Springfield, Brown is also demanding answers on company’s recent layoff of nearly 300 Springfield workers since September 2019, including 100 just last week.