The UAW significantly escalated its strike against Ford Wednesday night by staging a walkout at the Ford Kentucky Truck plant – which is currently responsible for the Ford Super Duty, Ford Expedition, and Lincoln Navigator. This latest action, which the UAW announced on social media, comes less than one week after the union decided not to stage any walkouts after GM decided to include its current and upcoming EV plants in future bargaining agreements. Before this latest walkout, Ford and the UAW remained at odds over retirement security and its own EV facilities.
“It’s time for a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it,” said UAW President Shawn Fain. The president and Ford have been trading barbs for several weeks now, with the automaker accusing the UAW of holding up talks over EV battery plants and Fain claiming the company was lying. As Ford Authority previously reported, The Ford Super Duty is incredibly profitable for the automaker, making the latest walkout the most painful one to date.
Ford immediately issued a statement after the union announced the walkout, saying the action is will harm over 100,000 people directly through Ford or indirectly via suppliers and other operations. It also accused the union of negotiating in bad faith, which marks the second time it has done so, referencing an article by The Detroit News about leaked text messages between UAW leadership.
“Ford made an outstanding offer that would make a meaningful positive difference in the quality of life for our 57,000 UAW-represented workers, who are already among the best compensated hourly manufacturing workers anywhere in the world. In addition to our offer on pay and benefits, Ford has been bargaining in good faith this week on joint venture battery plants, which are slated to begin production in the coming year.
The UAW leadership’s decision to reject this record contract offer – which the UAW has publicly described as the best offer on the table – and strike Kentucky Truck Plant, carries serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers.”
Aside from Kentucky Truck plant, the UAW kicked off its strike by staging a walkout at Michigan Assembly plant, then escalated two weeks later by shutting down Chicago Assembly plant. The former plant is responsible for the Ford Bronco and Ford Ranger, while the latter facility produces the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. This is the first time the UAW has staged a walkout without warning, with previous announcements being made on Fridays by Fain.
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Comments
Fain the pain keeps digging himself a bigger hole with his “piehole”.
What a fool!!
July 18th I ordered two 2024 Super duty king ranchs. 4 weeks ago by the grace of God I received emails from Ford with Vin #’s , and a build date week of Nov 6th. Yesterday I received an email stating it was pushed out till the week of 13th. There ain’t no chance of that now. I waited 10 months for my 2023 I ordered but that did not happen. 2 weeks before this strike I was worried about not having a extra truck as I need one and relying on Ford coming thru was not high on my list. The other thing I worried about was the dealers adding 20- 25K
to the price of truck because of Inventory. Bought a 2500HD High Country, and I’m so glad I did because this ain’t going away any time soon. I do wish I had my King Ranch.
Talk about killing the golden goose. Ford should go scorched earth and move the plants and lay off the workers. People don’t care writ large where the vehicles are made anymore. Ram and Chevy have proved that. Get them on down to Mexico and call it a day. Or better yet contract them out to a joint venture..like Ford does in other countries..they hold the minority stake and don’t have to worry about the overhead. We don’t want to pay any higher prices for UAW built stuff..it’s bad enough we get to deal with th feap quality.
Make em in CHYNA or russia russia russia
Fire them all.
Time for Ford to take a page out of all the import brands and build vehicles in locales that appreciate the business and opportunity. Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi come to mind. Strike a deal with the Federal government and ICE to offer conditional employment to some of the recent illegal immigrants who are now in our country, many of who would love to make $20/hr. bolting wheels on an F-250.
Structure non-Union employment to heavily weight hourly wages with credible offerings but less emphasis on retirement, healthcare, etc. Tell Michigan and the UAW to please turn out the lights when they leave their dumpy towns with awful weather. Fain and his henchmen are doing their Rank & File a great disservice with their pie in the sky demands and hostage taking bargaining style. America needs Ford, GM and Stellantis but cannot be held at gunpoint every time a new leader wants to make their mark. I’m all for workers being able to earn a fair wage but these workers aren’t astronauts or brain surgeons. Their skills are easily replicable and trainable and the Big 3 would be better served investing in places and people who appreciate their investment and primacy mission and are not always trying to squeeze the last drop of blood from the Golden Goose.
Unfortunately, the UAW and Ford have competition. Competition which is capable and eager to benefit from the UAW’s lack of understanding of economics.