WAYNE, MI—A secret meeting in 2015 between Ford Motor Co. and the UAW led to job security and a sigh of relief among factory workers three years later as they begin manufacturing the Ranger midsize pickup truck at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant here.

“We were developing the idea around bringing the Ranger back, and the Bronco, as well,” Joe Hinrichs, president of global operations at Ford, told the Detroit Free Press. “We thought it made sense to build it in the United States at a plant with history.”