Many of the 12-thousand Ford employees working at the company’s Louisville assembly and truck plants spent part of their Labor Day wondering if they’d be striking soon. United Auto Workers Local 862 President Todd Dunn said when he was hired 28-and-a-half years ago, a Ford job was a career. He says it’s not that way anymore because of company policies.
“Cost of living is another huge one, we gave up cost of living back when our companies were struggling to succeed. So we had to help out our retirees, we sacrificed our cost of living, we did things to help the company.”
Dunn said a strike informational assistance meeting will take place Sunday, and the deadline to reach an agreement is September 14th at midnight. Dunn said when times were tough for Ford, union workers gave up cost of living adjustments and made other concessions – and now the company needs to reinvest some profits in its workers.
“Our goal is not strike Ford Motor Company. If there's some reason that a strike is authorized, it'll be because Ford Motor Company, navigated us towards that, that solution, which is really not a solution.”
In a statement, Ford said their latest offer included 15 percent guaranteed combined wage increases and lump sums to hourly employees and improved benefits over the life of the contract.
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