Kentucky battery plant workers at the BlueOval SK Battery Park (BOSK) in Glendale have voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW). The workers make batteries to power Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck and E-Transit cargo van.
On August 27 at 10 p.m., an unofficial tally showed 526 yes and 515 no votes, with forty-one challenged ballots. There were 1,200 eligible voters; turnout was over 90 percent. The UAW called the vote “a major step forward for workers who stood up against intense company opposition and chose to join the UAW.”
“We’re feeling pretty confident, I think we’re gonna win,” said battery worker Halee Hadfield via text message on August 23. “Things are really ramping up across the whole plant and people are pissing off the plant managers by simply wearing shirts, hats, and buttons with the UAW logo on them.”
The outcome of the election will ultimately hinge on the forty-one challenged ballots. The union called those ballots “illegitimate” and called on Ford to “drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election.”
Maintenance and production workers were eligible to vote. But the status of Safety Emergency Response Team (SERT) employees was left in limbo: election rules agreed to by the company and the UAW permitted them to vote but said their eligibility would be decided after the election. Their ballots are being challenged by the union.
The union called on Ford to ‘drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election.’
“The challenged ballots are…
Auteur: Luis Feliz Leon
