The United Auto Workers union is threatening to go on strike next week at Ford Motor Co.’s largest and most profitable factory in a dispute over local contract language.
The union said Friday that nearly 9,000 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville will strike on Feb. 23 if the local contract dispute is not resolved.
If there’s a strike, it would be the second time the union has walked out at the sprawling factory in the past year. In October, UAW workers shut down the plant during national contract negotiations that ended with large raises for employees.
The plant, one of two Ford factories in Louisville, makes heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and the Ford Excursion and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs, all hugely profitable vehicles for the company.
“Ford CEO Jim Farley told an analysts’ conference in New York that last fall’s contentious strike changed Ford’s relationship with the union to the point where the automaker will “think carefully” about where it builds future vehicles.” Yes, and your potential customers can think carefully about which vehicles they buy. A simple web search will tell you where vehicles are being made and whether it’s built with union labor.
Pretty sure your average Super Duty buyer doesn’t care at all if their vehicle is made by a union or not. If anything they’re likely to be anti-union.