UAW Expands Strike to Louisville Truck Plant

The United Auto Workers significantly escalated the union's battle against Detroit Three automakers Wednesday by going on strike against a major Ford truck plant in Louisville, Kentucky. In a surprise move, the 8,700 members left their jobs at about 6:30pm at the plant, which makes profitable heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and large SUVs, the AP reports. UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement that the union has waited long enough "but Ford hasn't gotten the message" to bargain for a fair contract. Ford called the strike expansion "grossly irresponsible" but said it wasn't surprising given the UAW leadership's statements that it wanted to keep Detroit automakers hobbled with "industrial chaos."

The UAW began striking against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis on Sept. 15, with one assembly plant from each company. The next week, the union expanded the strike to 38 GM and Stellantis parts warehouses. Assembly plants from Ford and GM were added the week after that. All told, about 25,000 workers have walked off their jobs at 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 members at the automakers go on strike at the same time. Last week, the union reported progress in the talks and decided not to add any more plants. This came after GM agreed to bring joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories into the national master contract, almost ensuring that the plants will be unionized.

Since the start of the strike, the three Detroit automakers have laid off roughly 4,800 workers at factories that are not among the plants that have been hit by the UAW strikes. The companies say the strikes have forced them to impose those layoffs, per the AP. They note that the job cuts have occurred mainly at factories that make parts for assembly plants that were closed by strikes. The UAW rejects that argument. It contends that the layoffs are unjustified and were imposed as part of the companies' pressure campaign to persuade UAW members to accept less favorable terms in negotiations with automakers.

(More UAW strike stories.)