Workers at Kentucky electric vehicle battery production complex start drive to unionize

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Workers hired for a sprawling electric vehicle battery production complex in Kentucky have launched a campaign to join the United Auto Workers as the union tries to expand its foothold in the South and among battery factories, the UAW said Wednesday.

The BlueOval SK complex at Glendale is a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its South Korean partner, SK On, to produce batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles. The nearly $6 billion battery park — about an hour south of Louisville — is gearing up to start manufacturing in 2025.

The union said a supermajority of workers at BlueOval SK have signed union authorization cards to launch the public campaign to join the UAW.

The union will need to seek an election run by the National Labor Relations Board to organize workers at the two-plant complex in Kentucky. So far it has not filed papers seeking an election.

Production at one of the plants is scheduled to start next year. Construction continues at the second plant but a start date for production has been paused as Ford monitors demand for electric vehicles.

In a statement on its website, the union said it believes companies like Blue Oval SK “can do better to provide career-track, family-sustaining jobs that strengthen our community.”

Asked for a response to the unionizing effort, BlueOval SK human resources Director Neva Burke said in a statement: “We want to maintain a direct relationship with our employees.”

The UAW said workers at Blue Oval SK, who are now nonunion, have weaker benefits than union workers at Ford. At Blue Oval, workers start at $21 per hour, while UAW production workers at Ford start at $26.32 and can make up to $42 per hour after three years, the union said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has called the project a “game changer” for the state.

“We know that EVs are the future,” Beshear said recently. “We don’t know how quickly they’ll get here, but the future has been built in Kentucky, and we’re going to be a really big part of it.”

The UAW is hoping for a repeat of its successes in neighboring states.

Workers at a General Motors joint venture electric vehicle battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, joined the union. Workers at a Volkswagen assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, also voted to unionize. In Ohio, workers at another GM joint venture electric vehicle battery factory voted to join the UAW.

But the union lost an organizing vote in May at two Mercedes factories in Alabama.

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Krisher reported from Detroit.