After months of negotiations over local issues, UAW Local 862 has reached a tentative local agreement with Ford Motor Co., averting a potential strike this week at the automaker’s most-profitable plant.
The union said last week said that nearly 9,000 workers at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville would walk picket lines starting Friday if the contract dispute was not resolved.
But the UAW said in a statement Wednesday that a deal had been reached, ending the strike threat.
The tentative agreement addresses health and safety issues, ergonomics, the company’s efforts to reduce the number of skilled trades workers and other issues, the union said, according to a report from ABC News.
The agreement still needs ratification from members. According to published reports, town-hall style meetings are set for the end of the week, with voting tentatively scheduled from Feb. 28 to March 1.
The plant, one of two Ford factories in Louisville, makes heavy-duty F-Series pickup trucks and the Ford Excursion and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs, all hugely profitable vehicles for the company.
It would have been the second strike in less than a year at the plant, which UAW workers targeyed in October during national contract negotiations that ended with large raises for employees.
Workers have been without a local contract for five months, the UAW said.
A statement from the UAW said there are “dozens” of other local agreements being negotiated with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
