By Nora Eckert
DETROIT (Reuters) -A majority of employees 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 mentioned 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 yr invested $40 million to prepare non-union automakers throughout the US, a push that included corporations akin to Tesla (NASDAQ:) and Toyota (NYSE:).
The UAW mentioned a “supermajority” of employees on the Ford Kentucky battery plant had signed union playing cards indicating their assist. It didn’t specify the share.
“We want to maintain a direct relationship with our employees,” BlueOval SK Human Sources Director Neva Burke mentioned in an announcement. Ford directed Reuters to BlueOval SK for remark.
Battery crops owned by Ford and Common Motors (NYSE:) have been in UAW President Shawn Fain’s sights since he led a six-week strike towards the Detroit Three final autumn, and demanded employees at EV-related crops be union members along with these at present gasoline-engine crops.
On the time, Ford CEO Jim Farley mentioned Fain was “holding the deal hostage over battery plants.”
Fain has mentioned unionizing these battery and EV manufacturing facilities shall be important 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 Resolution at crops 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, employees will maintain a proper vote on whether or not to affix the union.
A UAW win would imply beginning pay for employees there’ll improve from $21 an hour to $26.32, the union mentioned, with the potential to make over $42 an hour after three years, according to the present contract with Ford.
