Ford Supplier Clarios Heads To Court Amid Ongoing UAW Strike

Ford is entering a new era of electrification, and – as part of that process – is building a number of new EV and EV battery manufacturing plants. As such, the company will need to work even closer with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which is seeking to organize facilities like BlueOval Battery Park Michigan and BlueOval City. That task could prove more difficult given the fact that newly elected UAW president Shawn Fain has promised that tough negotiations are forthcoming, however. Recently, we saw this in action as a UAW strike began at the Clarios battery plant in Holland, Ohio, just this week, and now, that Ford supplier is heading to court as it aims to restart production, according to Automotive News.

Clarios – which makes low-voltage batteries for a wide variety of vehicles – failed to reach an agreement with the UAW Local 12, which resulted in the start of a strike earlier this week. With no progress being made entering the fifth day of this strike, Clarios has filed a court injunction against the striking workers with the hopes that is can clear its own driveway and enable it to keep the production lines rolling – a move that UAW regional director for Ohio and Indiana David Green called “extremely disrespectful.”

Clarios claims that pickets have blocked the entrance to its Holland plant and are preventing vehicles from entering and exiting the facility, and the company is seeking a restraining order that would set a fixed number of pickets allowed at the entrance. “We respect our employees’ right to strike, however, there have been a series of unsafe activities taking place on the picket lines,” the company said in a statement. “There’s absolutely no reason for this strike to endanger our represented and salaried employees, family members who may be on the picket line, or the suppliers and vendors who are associated with our business.”