Loyalty to General Motors runs deep in Flint, Mich., even though the automaker that was founded there more than a century ago has closed all but one of its assembly plants in the city.
So when county officials this month considered buying 13 Ford Explorers, UAW leaders objected and the sheriff said he would refuse to drive them.
Instead, the county agreed to spend an extra $85,839 to buy Chevrolet Tahoes that are less fuel efficient and built about 1,000 miles farther away.
"I have no interest driving Ford at the sheriff's office. I won't do it," Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson said, according to the Flint Journal. "I have no interest in driving any other vehicle that's not built in this community."
UAW Region 1D Director Steve Dawes called the county's consideration of Ford vehicles "ludicrous."
The only vehicles GM still builds in Flint are heavy-duty pickups. The automaker used to employ as many as 80,000 people in the city, which was home to the sprawling Buick City manufacturing complex.
The Tahoes that Genesee County is buying for a total of $484,964 are assembled in Arlington, Texas. Two of the county's nine commissioners voted against the purchase, citing the Tahoe's higher cost and lower fuel economy in comparison with the Explorer, which is made at a UAW plant in Chicago.
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