A supermajority of workers at the plant signed union authorization cards last November — the first step in their public campaign to join the United Auto Workers, one of the country’s largest labor unions representing automobile and other manufacturing workers. Then in January, workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote, the first move of the year for formal organizing among Southern autoworkers.
Just six months later and a few days after an NLRB regional director said the workplace qualified for its election, the UAW asked the board to investigate the companies behind the electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant. Workers say Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based SK On have launched an anti-union campaign that’s interfered with scheduling the election and keeping it fair.
“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” said quality department worker Emily Drueke. “However, we are asking the NLRB to ensure a fair playing field.”
The call for an investigation is in addition to six open cases of unfair labor practices filed with the NLRB against BlueOval between November 2024 and July 2025. Detailed information is not public until the cases close, but allegations range from interrogation, coercive actions and statements, threats, surveillance and employee firings.
“They (workers) stood up and organized because they want what everyone deserves — a safe job and a voice at work,” said UAW Region 8 Director Tim Smith.
“Battery jobs are growing fast here in Kentucky, but they should be good, safe union jobs — not jobs where workers get hurt and silenced. We need a fair shot to vote without the company trying to rig the outcome.”
In the July 1 news release in which the UAW calls NLRB to investigate, workers say the company’s anti-union actions have “poisoned the atmosphere around the election — especially in a workplace already plagued by safety concerns.”
Those concerns were highlighted in a May media report that found workers had been using faulty safety equipment, were exposed to toxic chemicals on the job and had broken bones at work.
Production associate Rob Collett said the union is about making working conditions safer for workers through a contract.
“BOSK wants to act like there are no safety issues here,” he said. “But the chemicals we work with are dangerous. We want the ability to speak up and make things safer.”
Workers like Collett and others say the company has retaliated against vocal union supporters, forced workers into private meetings and threatened to shut down the plant altogether.
The UAW says the plant’s workers claim Ford has bought anti-union ads, distributed anti-union merchandise and brought in consultants to expose workers to anti-union campaigning.
UAW Vice President and Director of the Ford Department, Laura Di-kerson, said Ford workers have had a union for over 80 years. “Ford knows better,” she said. “... You can’t have a fair vote when the company is flooding the plant with fear and propaganda.”
Article:
https://amp.kentucky.com/news/business/article310211245.html
What the he-l is going on in Kentucky?