The United Auto Workers and Ford have tentatively agreed on a new local contract for workers at the automaker’s Kentucky truck factory, one of the company’s most important plants, staving off what would have been the second strike at the facility in months.
The UAW announced the
tentative agreement Wednesday, touting a new contract the union says addresses
its core concerns involving skilled trades, health and safety issues and
ergonomics at the Kentucky facility.
Last week, the
union set a
Feb. 23 deadline for an agreement, with its nearly 9,000 workers threatening a
strike if the deadline wasn’t met.
It would have been
the second strike at the Kentucky factory in less than a year—in October,
thousands walked off
the job amid the UAW’s national negotiations with Ford, General
Motors and Stellantis, which resulted in a new national
contract with a 25% hourly wage increase throughout the
more than four-year term.
Still, union
members across the country are negotiating over local issues—UAW says
there are 19 other open local agreements with Ford, and several others at GM
and Stellantis.
Ford shares were down around 1%
Wednesday just before noon.
In a
statement to Forbes, Ford said it was “pleased to have reached a tentative
agreement” with the union and touted new product launches out of Kentucky
expected this year, including the new Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator.
$1.7 billion.
That’s how much profit Ford lost last year due to the strikes, the
automaker disclosed in
November. The company also saw its sales cut by about 100,000 vehicles. The
Kentucky plant manufactures Ford’s F-150 and other profitable truck models.
KEY BACKGROUND
The UAW strike
last fall marked the first time a union launched simultaneous labor action
against the “Big Three” automakers based in Detroit. Last week, Ford CEO Jim
Farley told the Wolfe Research Global Auto Conference the strike changed its
relationship with the UAW, and suggested the
company has “to think carefully about our (manufacturing) footprint” as it
transitions to electric vehicles. UAW President Shawn Fain wrote on X the
contract was “a major victory for working families across the country, and if
Ford is upset about that, that tells you a lot about the leadership of this
company.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesfarrell/2024/02/21/ford