When Ford closes its mammoth St. Thomas assembly plant in about two years – as it’s expected to – the fallout won’t stop with the loss of 1,500 or so well-paying blue-collar jobs. There’s the matter of the millions of tax dollars Ford pays in Elgin County, the hundreds of thousands of dollars Ford workers contribute to the United Way every year and the tens of millions they spend in their communities on homes, cars, groceries, appliances, municipal taxes, entertainment and recreation.
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