The United Automotive Workers (UAW) union has threatened a strike at a key Ford truck plant in Kentucky after local negotiations failed to reach an agreement nearly five months after the contract deadline expired.
In a news release Friday, the UAW threatened to put the site's approximately 9,000 workers on strike next week. She said Ford had failed to reach a local agreement with UAW Local 862 in Louisville, even after more than five months since the contract expired. Because of this, the union has set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Friday, February 23 if the contract issues at Local 862 are not resolved.
The plant, often referred to as the “Kentucky Truck Plant,” produces the Ford F-250 through F-550 Super Duty trucks, the Ford Expedition and the luxury Lincoln Navigator, according to Ford's website. It is also considered Ford's most profitable plant, with annual sales of about $25 billion, and played a key role in the UAW strikes at Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis plants last fall.
Local contracts are part of the tentative national agreements Ford reached with the UAW in October, although Local 862 members were also among the few within the Big Three to initially vote against the proposed contract. According to Ford, the Kentucky Truck Plant employed 9,251 workers in August, including 8,700 hourly workers.
At the time of writing, Ford has not responded to Teslarati's request for comment.
After the deals with Ford, GM and Stellantis in November, the UAW set its sights on other automakers with non-union U.S. locations, including Tesla, Toyota, Hyundai and several others. Earlier this month, it was reported that the majority of workers had signed union cards at a non-union Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where the automaker makes the electric ID.4.
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