United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during an online broadcast briefing union members on negotiations with Detroit automakers on October 6, 2023.
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DETROIT – The United Auto Workers is threatening a labor strike Ford Motors largest US plant if local unions’ demands are not resolved by next week.
The union in Detroit said Friday that nearly 9,000 UAW auto workers at the Ford truck plant in Kentucky could strike at 12:01 a.m. Feb. 23 if local contract problems persist. The plant – Ford’s largest in terms of employment and sales – produces Ford Super Duty pickups as well as Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
Local contracts differ from the national agreements the union ratified with Ford in late 2023. General Motors and Chrysler mother Stellar. They address facility-specific issues and can often remain unresolved for months, if not years, after national agreements are ratified.
The union said, “Key issues in the Kentucky Truck Plant’s local negotiations are health and safety at the plant, including plant minimum nurse staffing and ergonomic issues, as well as Ford’s continued attempts to undermine skilled trades at the Kentucky Truck Plant.”
Factory workers and UAW union members form a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Kentucky Truck Plant in the early morning hours of October 12, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Luke Sharrett | Getty Images
It was not immediately clear why the union set the strike deadline at the Ford plant and not others. There are 19 additional open local agreements at Ford, as well as several open local agreements at GM and Stellantis.
Ford, which prides itself on its relationship with the UAW, said in an email statement: “Negotiations continue and we look forward to reaching an agreement with UAW Local 862 at the Kentucky Truck Plant.”
The deadline for the strike comes a day after UAW President Shawn Fain criticized Ford CEO Jim Farley over his comments that the automaker would “think carefully” given changing market conditions and contentious negotiations with the union last year. where he would build future vehicles This included six weeks of targeted attacks.
Farley specifically mentioned the UAW’s October strike against the Kentucky Truck Plant as a key moment in the company’s changing relationship with the union.
“We were the first truck plant to close…Obviously our relationship has changed. It was a turning point for the company. Does it impact business? Yes,” Farley said Thursday during a Wolfe Research investor conference. “If we look at this EV transition and [internal combustion engine] As our vehicles last longer and our trucking business becomes more profitable, we need to think carefully about our footprint.”
Fain, who has always been a combative union leader, responded by saying, among other things: “Maybe Ford doesn’t have to move factories to find the cheapest labor in the world,” he said. “Maybe we need to recommit ourselves to American workers and find a CEO who cares about the future of this country’s auto industry.”
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2024-02-16 21:51:15
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