As Ford Authority reported earlier today, the United Auto Workers (UAW) opted not to expand its strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, though it did walk out of the Kentucky Truck plant – somewhat abruptly and unexpectedly – earlier this week. A recent report indicates that this action took place after FoMoCo told the UAW that it was unable to up its offer financially in an impromptu meeting late Wednesday, which reportedly came as a surprise not only to most of the world, but also Blue Oval brass.
“So we’ve been working with the union quite intensely, obviously for last several weeks,” Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, said at a media event regarding the implications of the Kentucky Truck Plant walkout. “And this last week, the two areas we were talking about, you’re correct, was pensions, and also the battery plants. And frankly, we thought we were making progress on both and were quite surprised at the escalation. As I said earlier, we’ve made an outstanding offer. It’s great wages.”
“It’s great benefits. We’ve been bargaining in good faith,” Galhotra added. “The battery plants are not as straightforward proposition, unfortunately. It’s a very complex area, because these are joint ventures. The plants aren’t even built yet. We haven’t hired the workforce yet. The workforce isn’t unionized yet. Yet, we are very open to working with them on a way forward on the battery plants. So those are the two key items we were working on and frankly, we’re surprised by the escalation yesterday.”
As Ford Authority reported earlier this week, two main sticking points remain in these ongoing discussions – increased retirement security and the inclusion of future joint-venture EV battery plants in the UAW’s master contracts with the automakers, as Galhotra noted in his comments here. GM has already reportedly agreed to the latter term, but thus far, Ford has shunned making such a move, instead preferring to allow employees at those plants decide for themselves if they want to be represented by the union.
In the meantime, Ford just outlined the ripple effects of the strike at the Kentucky Truck plant this morning, which is affecting a total of 13 additional facilities. The automaker has also laid off a total of 1,920 workers as a result of the ongoing strike thus far, with more seemingly possible to follow the longer this work stoppage continues, particularly if it spreads to include additional plants moving forward.
We’ll have more on the UAW strike soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-UAW news, UAW news, and ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
The UAW is basicly giving Fords customers the finger.
The poor assembly they’ve been giving for years was the finger. This is just greed
Do us a favor fire all of them and go nonunion and make vehicles at a reasonable price
Can you provide the MSRP of comparable truck assembled in a non union plant?
All by design to ‘try’ to force EVs. How about they walkout of an EV plant??? Not a surprise all car news articles are stating that EVs have failed.
#BudLightEVs
I read an article that talked about the money Biden gave Ford for the battery plants without attaching a demand to hire UAW workers so in affect, Joe Biden is screwing the workers by pushing EV’s and also giving money to the companies to build battery plants but the leadership still supports him. A contract is only as good as the economy is so if the workers want to keep what is negotiated and not have to reopen their contract they better vote for Donald Trump for President come 24.
Donald Duck…24 to life
I’ve had an F350 Super-duty on order since December of 2022. Time to face the reality and just go get a Toyota
I have a F350 on order since Feb 2022. At least now they have a excuse for not delivering it. I bought a High Country Chevy that was in stock.
Not surprised. When the headlines reported that Ford and the UAW had made good strides, I thought, “Hmm. Didn’t the UAW president promise early-on that he would employ disruptive tactics? ” It seems that this time around, nothing is as it seems.
Ha, and people are talking about Lincoln using the facility in China to produce certain cars…… Americans are not trying to make “AMERICA Great again” what are we doing as a nation right now?
It doesn’t seem to take much to surprise Ford these days. They’re surprised people want super duty trucks and mavericks. They’re surprised people don’t want overpriced lightnings and mach Es.
Honestly, it’s like they’re just totally clueless up at Ford.
Furd’s in bed with the Chinamen on the battery plants. On a side note, I’ve never seen such hideous grills on a truck like Furd. All these clowns want to do is make everything bigger.