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Annie Baxter
St. Paul, Minn.

Group calling on St. Paul Ford plant to produce electric cars

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The advocacy group Environment Minnesota Wednesday joined with other organizations, including the United Auto Workers Local 879, to call for production of electric cars at the St. Paul Ford plant.

The plant makes the Ranger pickup truck and is slated to close in 2011.

Rob McKenzie, a UAW representative for the region, said the Ranger pick-up truck is at the end of its life expectancy, and it's time to make a new product at the St. Paul facility.

"It's been around quite a while, and it's probably due for a remake and a retooling and a remodeling," McKenzie said. "So I'm not sure they're going to compete in that market segment."

Ford says its intentions to close the St. Paul plant in 2011 have not changed. The plant employs about 950 workers, most of them UAW members.

U.S. sales of Ranger pick-up trucks last year were down nearly 16 percent compared to 2008. The Ranger plant employs about 950 UAW and other workers.