Employees will resume casting ballots as a pivotal decision is looming for a Kentucky manufacturing complex that will produce batteries for Ford electric vehicles
Ballots are being cast Wednesday over a pivotal decision at a Kentucky manufacturing complex that is producing batteries for electric vehicles. Workers will decide whether to join the United Auto Workers and extend a streak of union victories in the South, where organized labor struggled to find solid footing.
A two-day union vote closes Wednesday, about a week after production began at the BlueOval SK battery park, a nearly $6 billion joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its South Korean partner, SK On.
Batteries from this plant will power the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup and its EV cargo van, the E-Transit.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says the complex that sprung up in tiny Glendale — a community of around 2,000 residents an hour south of Louisville — is the single largest economic investment in Bluegrass State history.
Pro-union employee Kumari Logan is looking for the security than she believes only a unionized workforce can deliver.
“My bills are guaranteed, so my pay and benefits should be guaranteed, too,” Logan said in comments emailed by the union. “Right now they can just change things whenever they feel like it, and that’s stressful.
