LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The United Auto Workers union is threatening to strike Ford’s biggest plant — Kentucky Truck Plant in eastern Jefferson County — once again over a dispute about local contract issues.
The UAW will walk its roughly 9,000 Kentucky Truck members off the job on Feb. 23 if the impasse is not resolved, the union said Friday.
“The 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,” the union said in a news release.
The UAW’s international office didn’t respond to a list of questions seeking more information about the impasse.
“Negotiations continue and we look forward to reaching an agreement with UAW Local 862 at Kentucky Truck Plant,” Ford spokeswoman Jessica Enoch said in a statement.
Last fall, Ford and the UAW reached a national agreement covering wages, benefits and other key terms through 2028. But each of Ford’s U.S. plants has separate agreements with the company covering issues specific to the facilities.
Kentucky Truck Plant’s is one of 19 unresolved local agreements, the UAW said in the news release. Ford’s other Louisville plant — Louisville Assembly Plant off Fern Valley Road — resolved its local agreement in January.
UAW Local 862 President Todd Dunn addresses reporters at the Kentucky Truck Plant union hall on Oct. 26, 2023
Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, said he couldn’t speak to the specifics of the Kentucky Truck Plant negotiations, which are being handled by Jon Jaggers, the union’s building chairman at Kentucky Truck.
But in his 30 years with the UAW and Ford, Dunn said he’s never experienced a plant strike over a local contract.
“I’m very optimistic that Ford Motor Co. will do the right thing and sit down with us, and we’ll be able to close this agreement out,” Dunn told WDRB News.
The UAW’s concern about skilled trades members comes as Kentucky Truck is facing a wave of retirements in 2024.
Another strike in Kentucky could hamper future expansion by FORD in the commonwealth.
Skilled trades workers, such as electricians, pipefitters, millwrights and industrial maintenance technicians, earn higher wages than production workers who perform general assembly line tasks.
As part of the national UAW deal, Ford is offering one-time, $50,000 buyouts to older or long-tenured workers to retire in 2024. Ford has promised investors it will wring $2 billion in cost savings out of its operations to offset the higher costs in wages and benefits incurred for the UAW contract.
As of Friday, about 750 Kentucky Truck workers had volunteered for the retirement incentive, Dunn said. The plant has about 1,200 workers who are eligible to take the deal, he said.
Kentucky Truck employs about 8,700 hourly workers and churns out some of Ford’s most profitable vehicles — Super Duty pickups that are often sold to construction companies and utilities, as well as the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
