Thousands of autoworkers walk out at Ford's largest factory as UAW escalates strike

The United Auto Workers union is raising the stakes against Detroit's Three automakers, shutting down Ford's largest factory and threatening Jeep maker Stellantis.

In a surprise move Wednesday night, 8,700 members left their jobs at Ford's Kentucky truck plant in Louisville. Union President Shawn Fain said in a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the automaker "isn't taking us serious" and blaming Ford for failing to resolve the impasse. 

"They made it happen — this is on them, Fain said.

Ford's truck plant makes heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and large Ford and Lincoln SUVs, hitting the company's most lucrative products. The vehicles made at the plant generate $25 billion per year in revenue, the company said in a statement.

The Stand Up Strike just hit Ford's biggest plant. Here's how it went down, and why 8,700 members at Kentucky Truck Plant took action.#StandUpUAW pic.twitter.com/mzO0AZGMKS

— UAW (@UAW) October 12, 2023

Fain on Thursday also hinted at further action against Stellantis, which also owns Chrysler, Dodge and Ram, along with several foreign car brands. "Here's to hoping talks at Stellantis today are more productive than Ford yesterday," he wrote on X, without saying what might happen.

The strike came nearly four weeks after the union began its walkouts against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis on Sept. 15, with one assembly plant from each company.

"Painful aftershocks"

Ford called the UAW's move to widen the strike on Wednesday "grossly irresponsible" and said it has made strong wage and benefit offers to the union. It said the move puts about a dozen other Ford facilities at risk, as well as parts supply plants.

"In addition to affecting approximately 9,000 direct employees at the plant, this work stoppage will generate painful aftershocks – including putting at risk approximately a dozen additional Ford operations and many more supplier operations that together employ well over 100,000 people," the company said.

A Ford executive said the union called a meeting at the company's Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters Wednesday afternoon where Fain asked if the company had another offer.

High-ranking Ford executives responded that they are working on possibly bringing electric vehicle battery plants into the UAW national contract, essentially making them unionized. But they didn't have a significantly different economic offer, the executive said. Fain was told the company put a strong offer on the table, but there wasn't a lot of room to increase it and keep it affordable for the business, the executive said.

Fain responded by saying, if that's the company's best offer, "You just lost Kentucky Truck Plant," said the executive. The meeting only lasted about 15 minutes, he said.

The escalation against Ford shows that Fain is trying to increase pressure on the company, said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University who follows labor issues.

But Ford and the other automakers have made concessions and raised wage offers, he said. The companies, he said, "may have reached their resistance points to varying degrees." Executives, he said, have bottom line positions they can't cross in terms of staying competitive with other automakers.

Fain, Masters said, likely is testing how far he needs to push Ford before going to "full throttle," by taking all 57,000 Ford members out on strike.

The union's move doesn't leave him optimistic for a quick end to the strikes, Masters said. "I think the issues that remain on the table are quite thorny," he said, pointing to union demands that all workers get defined benefit pensions and health insurance when they retire.

The UAW expanded its strikes on Sept. 22, adding 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Assembly plants from Ford and GM were added the week after that. The Kentucky strike brings to 33,700 the number of workers on strike against the three automakers.

Thus far, the union has decided to target a small number of plants from each company rather than have all 146,000 UAW members at the automakers go on strike at the same time.

Mounting layoffs

The Big Three automakers have furloughed or laid off roughly 5,000 workers since the strike began. GM on Monday idled a total of 155 workers at plants in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. Ford let go 537 workers in Michigan and Ohio, according to the latest numbers posted on X. Stellantis laid off 570 workers at plants in Indiana and Michigan as recently as October 6, the company confirmed Monday.

Striking workers are receiving $500 a week from the union's strike pay fund. In some states, laid-off workers could qualify for state unemployment aid, which, depending on a variety of circumstances, could be less or more than $500 a week.

Fiorani said that as the strikes widen, more workers will likely be laid off at non-striking plants.

Separate companies that manufacture parts for the automakers are likely to have laid off workers but might not report them publicly, said Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group in Lansing, Michigan.

A survey of parts supply companies by a trade association called MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers found that 30% of members have laid off workers and that more than 60% expect to start layoffs in mid-October.

In:
• Economy
• Labor Union
• United Auto Workers
• Michigan