By Nora Eckert
DETROIT (Reuters) -A majority of staff at a Ford Motor (NYSE:) joint-venture battery plant in Kentucky have signed playing cards indicating their assist for the United Auto Staff, the union stated on Wednesday.
The BlueOval SK plant is owned by a partnership of South Korea’s SK On and Ford, and is the most recent electrical vehicle-related battleground for the union because it seeks to develop its membership.
The UAW earlier this 12 months invested $40 million to prepare non-union automakers throughout the USA, a push that included firms corresponding to Tesla (NASDAQ:) and Toyota (NYSE:).
The UAW stated a “supermajority” of staff on the Ford Kentucky battery plant had signed union playing cards indicating their assist. It didn’t specify the proportion.
“We wish to keep a direct relationship with our workers,” BlueOval SK Human Assets Director Neva Burke stated in an announcement. Ford directed Reuters to BlueOval SK for remark.
Battery vegetation owned by Ford and Normal Motors (NYSE:) have been in UAW President Shawn Fain’s sights since he led a six-week strike in opposition to the Detroit Three final autumn, and demanded staff at EV-related vegetation be union members along with these at current gasoline-engine vegetation.
On the time, Ford CEO Jim Farley stated Fain was “holding the deal hostage over battery vegetation.”
Fain has stated unionizing these battery and EV manufacturing facilities will likely be vital to the UAW’s future success, particularly as its ranks dwindle.
The union beforehand notched victories with Ultium Cells, a three way partnership between GM and LG Vitality Answer at vegetation in Ohio and Tennessee. In June, the union reached a tentative contract at an Ohio GM battery plant, and in September, GM agreed to acknowledge the union at an Ultium plant in Tennessee.
If the method continues at Ford’s Kentucky battery hub, staff will maintain a proper vote on whether or not to affix the union.
A UAW win would imply beginning pay for staff there’ll enhance from $21 an hour to $26.32, the union stated, with the potential to make over $42 an hour after three years, in keeping with the present contract with Ford.
