United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain throughout an online broadcast upgrading union members on settlements with the Detroit car manufacturers onOct 6, 2023.
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DETROIT â $” The United Auto Workers is threatening a labor strike at Ford Motor’s biggest U.S. plant if regional union needs aren’t dealt with by next week.
The Detroit union on Friday stated almost 9,000 UAW autoworkers at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant might strike at 12: 01 a.m. onFeb 23 if regional agreement problems stay. The plant â $” Ford’s biggest in regards to work and profits â $” produces Ford Super Duty pickups in addition to Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
Local agreements vary from the nationwide contracts that the union validated in late 2023 with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler moms and dad Stellantis They handle plant-specific problems and can often times go unsettled for months, if not years, after the nationwide offers are validated.
The union stated “core issues in Kentucky Truck Plant’s local negotiations are health and safety in the plant, including minimum in-plant nurse staffing levels and ergonomic issues, as well as Ford’s continued attempts to erode the skilled trades at Kentucky Truck Plant.”
Factory employees and UAW union members form a picket line outside the Ford MotorCo Kentucky Truck Plant in the morning hours on October 12, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Luke Sharrett|Getty Images
It was not right away clear why the union set the strike due date at the Ford plant and not others. There are 19 other open regional contracts throughout Ford, in addition to numerous open regional contracts at GM andStellantis Â
Ford, which has actually prided itself on its relationship with the UAW, in an emailed declaration stated: “Negotiations continue and we look forward to reaching an agreement with UAW Local 862 at Kentucky Truck Plant.”
The strike due date comes a day after UAW President Shawn Fain slammed Ford CEO Jim Farley over remarks he made suggesting the car manufacturer will “think carefully” about where it constructs future lorries due to altering market conditions and controversial settlements in 2015 with the union, that included 6 weeks of targeted strikes.
Farley particularly pointed out the UAW’s October strike versus the Kentucky Truck Plant  as an essential moment in the business’s altering relationship with the union.
“We were the first truck plant they shut down … Clearly our relationship has changed. It’s been a watershed moment for the company. Does it have business impact? Yes,” Farley stated Thursday throughout a Wolfe Research financier conference. “As we take a look at this EV shift and [internal combustion engine] Â long lasting longer and our truck service being more successful, we need to believe thoroughly about our footprint.”
Fain, who has actually been a traditionally combative union leader, reacted, in part, by stating: “Maybe Ford doesn’t need to move factories to find the cheapest labor on Earth,” he stated. “Maybe it needs to recommit to American workers and find a CEO who’s interested in the future of this country’s auto industry.”
