UAW threatens to strike Ford Kentucky Truck Plant over native calls for

DETROIT — The United Auto Staff is threatening a labor strike at Ford Motor’s largest U.S. plant if native union calls for aren’t resolved by subsequent week.

The Detroit union on Friday said practically 9,000 UAW autoworkers at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant may strike at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 23 if native contract points stay. The plant — Ford’s largest by way of employment and income — produces Ford Tremendous Responsibility pickups in addition to Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.

Native contracts differ from the nationwide agreements that the union ratified in late 2023 with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler dad or mum Stellantis. They cope with plant-specific points and might many occasions go unresolved for months, if not years, after the nationwide offers are ratified.

The union mentioned “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.”

It was not instantly clear why the union set the strike deadline on the Ford plant and never others. There are 19 different open native agreements throughout Ford, together with a number of open native agreements at GM and Stellantis. 

Ford, which has prided itself on its relationship with the UAW, in an emailed assertion mentioned: “Negotiations continue and we look forward to reaching an agreement with UAW Local 862 at Kentucky Truck Plant.”

The strike deadline comes a day after UAW President Shawn Fain criticized Ford CEO Jim Farley over feedback he made indicating the automaker will “think carefully” about the place it builds future automobiles in gentle of adjusting market circumstances and contentious negotiations final yr with the union, which included six weeks of targeted strikes.

Farley particularly talked about the UAW’s October strike in opposition to the Kentucky Truck Plant as a key second in the corporate’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 said Thursday throughout a Wolfe Analysis investor convention. “As we look at this EV transition and [internal combustion engine] lasting longer and our truck business being more profitable, we have to think carefully about our footprint.”

Fain, who has been a traditionally combative union chief, responded, partly, by saying: “Maybe Ford doesn’t need to move factories to find the cheapest labor on Earth,” he mentioned. “Maybe it needs to recommit to American workers and find a CEO who’s interested in the future of this country’s auto industry.”