Nearly 9,000 workers at a Ford plant in Kentucky walked off their jobs Wednesday night in a surprise move by the United Auto Workers union.
“UAW members at Ford’s iconic and extremely profitable Kentucky Truck Plant have joined the Stand Up Strike after Ford refuses to make further movement in bargaining,” the union said in a message shared on social media.
Early on Thursday, UAW President Shawn Fain suggested that Stellantis, which sells vehicles under the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge names, could soon face similar action.
“Here’s to hoping talks at Stellantis today are more productive than Ford yesterday,” he posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
At 6:30 p.m., 8,700 unionized employees at the automaker’s SUV and pickup plank in Louisville left their jobs as the union significantly escalated its action against Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers — Ford, Stellantis and General Motors — which began on Sept. 15.
“We have been crystal clear, and we have waited long enough, but Ford has not gotten the message,” Fain said in a statement Wednesday night. “It’s time for a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it.”
The Kentucky Truck Plant is not only Ford’s largest plant but one of the largest auto factories in the world, the company said. It generates $25 billion a year in revenue.
Ford slammed the union’s decision as “grossly irresponsible,” saying the work stoppage “will generate painful aftershocks,” including putting at risk the jobs of potentially “well over 100,000 people.”
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