United Auto Workers Union Threatens Strike at Kansas City F-150 Plant
United Auto Workers at the Kansas City, Missouri plant that produces Ford F-150s may strike as early as Sunday if the automaker doesn’t “negotiate in good faith,” according to Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president:
The challenges we face may not be easy, and I certainly cannot predict the future, but I would rather die fighting than to do an injustice to this membership or our institution.
Settles wrote to union members that issues such as “manpower provisions, the national heat stress program, and skilled trades scheduling amongst others” prompted the threatened strike at the Kansas City plant.
The threatened strike comes as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles workers reject their proposed contract that would have increased hourly pay rates for both tiered levels — but wouldn’t eliminate the system altogether.
Settles wrote in his letter to union employees that the FCA deal would have little impact on the eventual deal the union may reach with Ford.
I ask that you please do not read too much into the details of the FCA tentative agreement. Many aspects of FCA’s current agreement are different than the agreement we currently have with Ford, such as attendance policy, work schedules, vacation language, discipline, job security, apprenticeship testing, and progression of entry-level to legacy pay rates to name a few.
A spokeswoman from Ford said the company would avoid a strike.
“We work every day to avoid a disruption of our production, and we are confident we will be able to negotiate a fair and competitive labor agreement with our UAW partners,” the automaker said in a statement.
Ford also makes the F-150 at its Dearborn, Michigan facility.
More by Aaron Cole
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Why is the Bon Jovi song "Livin' on a Prayer" now stuck in my head?
Scumbag, parasitic, maggot union, always trying to strike the right balance between keeping their host alive & putting it into a very grave state of health, in order to suck as much blood from it as possible.
Do you hear that?...is the sound of all those jobs moving to Mexico
This is a weird volley to me. The UAW is currently negotiating with FCA, why call out Ford? Unless there's something else going on here it seems like a totally unnecessary maneuver.