UAW Inks Tentative Deal With Ford Over Kentucky Truck Plant

During the six-week-long United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against Ford last year, the union somewhat surprised the automaker by walking out of the Kentucky Truck plant – which builds the Ford Super Duty, Ford Expedition, and Lincoln Navigator – shortly after announcing that it wouldn’t expand its strike at that time. Both sides reached a tentative agreement on a new master contract shortly thereafter, which was promptly ratified by UAW workers, but workers at the Kentucky Truck plant rejected the deal. As Ford Authority reported last week, those workers were set to go on strike if a new deal wasn’t reached by this Friday, but now, it seems as if that crisis has been avoided, according to WHAS 11 News.

Ford and the UAW have reportedly reached a tentative deal on a new contract for workers at the Kentucky plant after around 9,000 workers previously received the go-ahead to strike on February 23^rd, 2024, if certain local contract issues weren’t resolved by then.

Those concerns reported pertained to the UAW Local 862, specifically, with which the automaker hadn’t yet reached an agreement with, roughly five months after the union’s broader strike ended. As such, UAW Vice President Chuck Browning requested authorization from UAW President Shawn Fain to set a strike deadline.

As Ford Authority previously reported, there were a few key points that remained concerning to UAW members at the Kentucky plant, including health and safety-related matters, minimum in-plant nurse staffing levels, and ergonomic issues, to name just a few. The UAW Local 862 has the ability to walk out even though the union already reached an agreement with Ford, as members are able to negotiate local agreements around plant-specific issues at each facility.

We’ll have more on this new deal soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford-UAW news, UAW news, and ongoing Ford news coverage.