Someday after Ford CEO stated union exercise was making him rethink the place the corporate places its vegetation, the United Auto Staff union is threatening a strike on the firm’s largest and most worthwhile manufacturing unit.
The union stated Friday that just about 9,000 employees on the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville will strike on Feb. 23 if a dispute over the native contract just isn’t resolved.
If there’s a strike, it will be the second time the union has walked out on the sprawling manufacturing unit previously yr, after UAW employees shut down the plant in October throughout nationwide contract negotiations that ended with massive raises for workers.
The plant, one among two Ford factories in Louisville, makes heavy-duty F-Collection pickup vans and the Ford Tour and Lincoln Navigator massive SUVs, all massively worthwhile autos for the corporate.
The union says that employees have been and not using a native contract for 5 months. The principle areas of dispute are well being and questions of safety, minimal in-plant nurse staffing, ergonomic points, and the corporate’s effort to cut back the variety of expert trades employees. The strike might start at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 23, the union says, noting that there are 19 different native agreements being negotiated with Ford, and a number of other extra at rivals Common Motors and Stellantis.
A message was left Friday in search of remark from Ford.
The day earlier than, Ford CEO Jim Farley advised an analysts’ convention in New York that final fall’s contentious strike modified Ford’s relationship with the union to the purpose the place the automaker will “think carefully” about the place it builds future autos.
“It was an extremely difficult moment for the company,” Farley stated throughout remarks to the Wolfe Analysis International Auto and Auto Tech Convention in New York. “It’s been a watershed moment for the company. Does it have a business impact? Yes.”
Farley stated that the Louisville manufacturing unit was the primary truck plant that the UAW shut down throughout final yr’s strike, which price the corporate $1.7 billion over six weeks of misplaced manufacturing. That’s although Ford made a aware choice to construct all of its pickup vans within the U.S., Farley famous.
Rivals Common Motors and Stellantis have truck vegetation within the U.S. and Mexico. “They went through bankruptcy and they moved production,” Farley stated, in accordance with the Detroit Free Press.
Relating to constructing pickups solely within the U.S., “we always thought it was the right kind of cost,” Farley stated, in accordance with outlet. However after the strike, he stated, “Clearly, our relationship has changed.”
The strike was an incredible success for UAW members, who gained raises as much as $40 an hour and did away with unpopular phrases within the contract, similar to “two-tier” wages during which workers have been paid completely different charges for a similar work, relying on once they have been employed. The employees’ wins add as much as practically $9 billion in further prices for Ford, which the corporate stated works out to about $900 extra per automobile.