LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thousands of workers at Ford's largest plant walked off the job Wednesday evening in a sudden and dramatic escalation of the United Autoworker’s strike.

Kentucky Truck Plant 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.

UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that the union is tired of waiting on Ford to deliver a fair contract since the strike against the Detroit plant began Sept. 15.

“If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it,” Fain said.

In a statement Wednesday, Ford called the UAW’s move "grossly irresponsible but unsurprising.”

The UAW’s decision to take out KTP came suddenly. The union has previously announced additional strike targets in weekly Friday livestream updates.

But in Detroit about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Fain asked for a meeting with Ford executives and demanded updated economic terms from the company, according to sources on both sides of the negotiations. When executives said they had nothing beyond the offer they’ve already made, Fain said something to effect of, “Well, you’ve just lost Kentucky Truck Plant.”

An hour later, workers in Louisville were walking off the job.

Striking KTP has “serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers," Ford said.

The vehicles assembled there alone generate $25 billion a year in revenue, Ford said.

"This decision by the UAW is all the more wrongheaded given that Ford is the only automaker to add UAW jobs since the Great Recession and assemble all of its full-size trucks in America," Ford added.

KTP also has a stamping operation that makes parts used by other Ford assembly plants. For example, KTP stamps body panels for the Escape SUVs made at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant across town.

Louisville Assembly, or LAP, has only a few days of supply of body panels stamped by KTP, said Brandon Reisinger, UAW Local 862 building chairman at LAP. That means LAP may be unable to operate soon as a result of KTP’s shutdown, although LAP isn’t on strike.

A Ford spokesman said there will be many “ripple effects” of the KTP shutdown, though it’s too soon to say how it will play out.

The escalation at KTP comes nearly four weeks after UAW workers began picketing against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Chrysler.

The union has steadily expanded the strike to more facilities in more states as negotiations continue. The UAW wants pay hikes in the range of 30% to 40% over four years and the restoration of inflation-adjusted wages and healthcare coverage for retirees, among other items.

Troy Trowell, a 24-year KTP worker, was one of the first at the picket line on Wednesday.

“I hate that we have to be out here and lose money — more money on top of the money that we should have made over the years that we lost money,” Trowell said, referring to concessions the UAW made to Ford during the Great Recession. “But it’s time. We’re due. We work hard. And for us to come to work every day and for the billionaires to continue to build off of our sweat, and we don’t get what we deserve, it’s just not fair.”

WDRB News reporter Conroy Delouche contributed to this report.

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Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press also contributed to this report.

Reach reporter Chris Otts at 502-585-0822, cotts@wdrb.com, on Twitter or on Facebook. Copyright 2023. WDRB Media. All rights reserved.