The United Car Employees union is searching for approval from federal labor regulators for a union election amongst employees at a Ford Motor battery plant in Kentucky, offering an necessary check of organized labor’s energy after the election of Donald J. Trump.
The union petitioned the Nationwide Labor Relations Board on Tuesday to let employees on the new manufacturing unit in Glendale, about 55 miles south of Louisville, vote on whether or not they wish to be part of the U.A.W. The plant, which is predicted to start manufacturing this yr, is a three way partnership between Ford and SK On, a South Korean battery firm.
In an announcement, the U.A.W. mentioned a “supermajority” of employees on the plant had signed playing cards expressing their want to affix the union.
“We would like to have the ability to come along with administration and have a voice in how the enterprise is run,” mentioned Invoice Wilmoth, a manufacturing employee on the Glendale plant who helped lead the organizing drive. “We would like a possibility to barter a contract.”
A vote to affix the U.A.W. would enhance the chance that employees who have been employed at two different Ford battery crops would additionally turn out to be union members. These crops — one in Kentucky and the opposite in Tennessee — are below development and are additionally joint ventures between Ford and SK.
“We’re enthusiastic about our future and attempt to take care of our direct relationship with our workers,” the three way partnership, referred to as BlueOval SK, mentioned in an announcement. BlueOval SK has about 750 workers in Kentucky and 350 in Tennessee.
The union election will happen after Mr. Trump turns into president and probably after his appointees have taken over management posts on the labor board. Mr. Trump’s appointees have been extensively seen by labor consultants as being hostile to unions and through his first time period. The labor board typically dominated in favor of employers over organized labor.
In the course of the 2024 election marketing campaign, pressure between the U.A.W. and Mr. Trump ran excessive. The president of the union, Shawn Fain, campaigned energetically for Vice President Kamala Harris and sometimes criticized Mr. Trump, calling him a “scab” and saying union employees would see a lot better progress below a Harris administration. Nonetheless, a big variety of U.A.W. members supported Mr. Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Underneath President Biden, the U.A.W. loved enthusiastic help from the White Home. Mr. Biden publicly championed unions and made an look on a U.A.W. picket line when the auto union was on strike towards the three giant Michigan-based automakers — Basic Motors, Ford and Stellantis — in 2023.
After profitable vital wage and profit positive aspects from the three corporations, the U.A.W. started campaigning to prepare nonunion auto crops within the South. It received a vote on the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., however misplaced one other at two Mercedes-Benz crops in Alabama.
An affirmative vote at Blue Oval SK would give the U.A.W. one other victory within the South, and will give the union momentum for votes on the different battery crops which have lately began manufacturing or are being constructed across the nation.
The U.A.W. has already organized employees at a G.M. battery plant in Ohio. That manufacturing unit is a three way partnership between G.M. and LG Power Answer. G.M. and LG lately began manufacturing at a second battery plant, in Spring Hill, Tenn., however that manufacturing unit has not but been organized by the U.A.W.
Stellantis, the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram automobiles, is constructing battery crops in Indiana that the U.A.W. additionally hopes to prepare.
G.M. and LG had plans for a 3rd battery plant in Lansing, Mich., however G.M. is about to promote its possession stake in that manufacturing unit, which is below development, to LG.
