Furloughed Canoo workers say more broken promises from company
Nov 05, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Furloughed Oklahoma City Canoo workers said they haven't heard back from the company after it said it would contact them regarding extending health care coverage for a month.
The company did the extension after the News 4 story regarding their sudden furloughs on October 31.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: OKC Canoo workers face furloughs ahead of holiday season
"...We acknowledge the oversight in health care coverage during this furlough period. In quick response, our current leadership team is extending health coverage at the same level each furloughed employee had as of October 31, at no cost to them, in recognition of their service to the company," Canoo spokesperson sent to News 4 on November 2.
Did they reach out to you about your healthcare coverage extension?
"No. I only knew about it because I saw an article talking about it," said one of the furloughed workers.
The workers are all choosing to remain anonymous as they are still under contract with Canoo. Many had worked at the OKC plant a year or longer.
The company said it furloughed 23% of factory workers at the OKC plant for twelve weeks.
"I just want the public and the Oklahoma taxpayers to know the truth about what's going on there," said the worker.
It has been bad news in the last year. The company's stock was around sixty cents a share on Friday, and on Tuesday it hit around thirty-nine cents a share.
On top of that, Walmart had a deal with the company in 2022 to deliver around 4,500 of their EV Fleet Vehicles, but this week announced a deal with Chevrolet to get EV vehicles, around 400.
The workers who spoke with News 4 feared that the furlough would be more permanent.
The workers told News 4 that no vehicles were made at the plant for the year or so they worked there.
"They don't have the paint body area up. General Assembly doesn't even have the full protocols on how to assemble that. It was still training for that. There's robotics which they don't have, a lot of them aren't even configured to run and operate. There has not been one single vehicle that has been wholeheartedly produced here in Oklahoma," said the worker.
Three fleet vehicles were said to have been made in Oklahoma that the state brought out in January.
"It's false information. The vehicles that they said were made here in Oklahoma were not made here in Oklahoma. Those vehicles were produced in Torrance, California, shipped to Oklahoma where they had the VINs assigned to them in Oklahoma. That way, they can state that they were built here. There has not been one single vehicle that has been produced here in Oklahoma," said the worker.
A Canoo spokesperson reached out to News 4 Tuesday evening:
These allegations are false. Consistent with the standards of the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA), Canoo proudly manufactures its vehicles in Oklahoma City for its customers in the U.S. and abroad.
Canoo spokesperson