LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The nearly 150,000 United Auto Workers members who work at the Detroit car companies voted by 97% to authorize union leaders to call a strike if they can’t reach a deal with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis.
Strike authorization votes are routine in union-employer contract negotiations and typically pass with overwhelming support. The roughly 12,000 Ford workers represented by Louisville’s UAW Local 862 voted 99% in favor of authorizing a strike, the local said Wednesday.
Whether UAW members actually walk off the job won’t be known until Sept. 14, the expiration of their current four-year contracts.
"Our plan is not to strike. Our plan is to bargain an agreement to win economic justice for our membership," UAW President Shawn Fain told Kentucky Truck Plant workers at a rally in Louisville on Thursday. "…Taking into account our expectations, and taking into account the companies’ continued desire to put a race to the bottom first, we may end up there. So, we have to plan for every scenario."
The automakers have said they hope to reach deals that keep their operations competitive amid uncertainty in the pace of the industry’s transition to all-electric powertrains.
