LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Two days after the United Autoworkers walked off the job at Kentucky Truck Plant, workers at Ford's other vehicle plant across town — Louisville Assembly — were wondering how long they may have job.
UAW leaders have not called the 3,200 workers at Louisville Assembly, or LAP, to the picket line. But the plant relies on body panels stamped across town at Kentucky Truck, or KTP, for the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair made at LAP.
"They're eventually going to run out (of parts). They're doing a ramp-down type of plan," said Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, the union for workers at KTP and LAP, in an interview Friday.
Dunn added he was "100%" certain that "LAP will end up being affected by the strike" unless the UAW calls workers back to KTP.
Because of the UAW action, the bulk of the work at KTP — which produces F-Series Super Duty Trucks, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator — has ceased.
But Ford has attempted to keep KTP's stamping operation going using non-union personnel, according to union and worker sources.
KTP stamps parts for Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant, in Avon Lake, Ohio, as well for LAP.
Ernie Amburgey, a 26-year veteran of KTP, was at the Kentucky Exposition Center on Friday signing up for strike pay. He said they've had enough.
"I've been here a long time," he said. "I love what I do. But it's hard to love what you do when you watch the people beside you not be able to eat a good meal or take care of their kids, work a second job. That's what we're doing it for."
KTP employs about 8,700 hourly workers churning out F-Series Super Duty pickups, a highly profitable model for Ford, as well as the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition full-size SUVs. The vehicles assembled there alone generate $25 billion a year in revenue, UAW President Shawn Fain said.
"This was a dream job," Amburgey said Friday. "Now, we've found out that nightmares are dreams, too. And we want to change that. We want to make this what is should be.
"It's disheartening that we have to do this, but we have to do this."
Ford spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
On Thursday, they declined to say how long they could keep LAP operating in light of the strike at KTP.
"As for up- and downstream layoffs as result of work stoppages, we announce them as they occur, not prospectively," said Ford's T.R. Reid.
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