In a last-minute maneuver this week, the UAW union ordered over 9,000 employees at Ford’s largest factory to walk off the job, expanding their strike. Ford said the workers’ strike at its Kentucky Truck Factory was “grossly irresponsible.”
After hearing Ford’s most recent offer this week, UAW President Shawn Fain said, “We have made our case very clear, and we feel that we have waited long enough, but Ford is still not getting the message. We’re not going to wait for an eternity.”
In a late-night video broadcast on X, the social networking site that was once known as Twitter, Fain declared, “If Ford is unable to comprehend that following four weeks on strike, all of these 8,700 employees shutting down their largest plant is going to help them to grasp it.”
We won’t keep waiting forever.
“We are here today in order to receive a new Ford offer. It’s too bad that this deal was the same one they made us two weeks ago. When it comes to us, they don’t take us seriously. As we’ve worked with the company on this, we have been very patient. In the end, they didn’t live up to our hopes,” Fain said.
Workers at the Louisville truck plant were supposed to start their shifts at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, but they stopped work when union leaders told them it was time to walk off because of what they called a lack of progress.
“The 8,700 UAW members at Ford’s renowned and incredibly successful Kentucky Truck Factory are joining the Stand Up Strike as Ford refuses to make further progress in negotiations,” according to a notice the UAW handed out to employees at 5:44 p.m.
The warning said, “People are leaving their jobs right now.”
Todd Dunn, head of UAW Local 862, told reporters, “We’ve been picked to be the next force in an international strike. The people in charge have asked us to do something. We need to do our part now.”
Ford makes the Ford F-Series Super Duty, the Ford Expedition, along with the Lincoln Navigator SUVs at its plant in Kentucky. Ford said in a statement released soon after the walkout that the plant is one of the biggest car companies in the world and brings in $25 billion a year.
According to the company, “the UAW’s choice to go on strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant is very careless, but not surprising, given that the union’s leaders have said they want to keep the Detroit 3 injured for months through ‘repetitive damage’ and ‘industrial chaos.'”
“The decision made by the UAW leadership to walk away from this record contract offer, which they have openly acknowledged as the best one available, and to strike at Kentucky Truck Plant has major ramifications for our dealers, suppliers, employees, and business clients,” Ford stated.
Four thousand United Auto Workers (UAW) employees in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida went on strike this week, refusing to accept a new wage offer from Mack Trucks.
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