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The UAW strike against the Ford Kentucky Truck Plant is a signal that hourly workers are willing to inflict — and sustain — increasingly serious financial pain to achieve their goals during labor negotiations, as the union and the Detroit Three approach a full month without resolution.
The financial impact of the surprise strike called Wednesday night was swift and immediate.
Ford released a list of 13 Ford plants the action directly affects, where layoffs and closure could happen within days.
The plant in Louisville is a profit center for the Dearborn automaker and its workers. The Ford profit-sharing formula is $1,000 for workers for each $1 billion in North American pretax profit. These are not bonus payments. Workers received an average of $9,176 for 2022.
Kentucky Truck builds the Ford Super Duty, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. Super Duty is among the most profitable products Ford sells. The vehicles built at the factory generate $25 billion a year in revenue, according to a statement from Ford in response to the strike.
Now Ford stands to lose roughly $30 million per day in profit with the truck plant on strike, Todd Dunn, the president of UAW Local 862 who led his members to the picket line, told the Louisville Courier-Journal. By taking out the Kentucky Truck Plant, Ford could see the Louisville Assembly Plant and the Ohio Assembly Plant fold within one to two days since they rely on the truck plant for stamping, among other things, Dunn said.
Ford released a list of its plants directly affected by the latest targeted strike:
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Ohio Assembly Plant in Sheffield, Ohio
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Louisville Assembly Plant in Louisville, Kentucky
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Sterling Axle Plant in Sterling Heights
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Michigan Assembly Plant and Integral Stamping in Wayne
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Dearborn Stamping Plant in Dearborn
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Buffalo Stamping Plant in Buffalo, New York
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Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights, Illinois
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Sharonville Transmission Plant in Cincinnati
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Cleveland Engine Plant in Brook Park, Ohio
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Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti
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Dearborn Diversified Manufacturing Plant in Dearborn
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Windsor Engine Plant in Canada
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Chihuahua Engine Plant in Mexico
Ford noted that an additional 58 Sterling Axle Plant employees were asked not to report to work beginning Wednesday. This was not the first layoff at the plant because of the earlier strike at Chicago Assembly. Affected workers apply for strike pay from the UAW, which is $500 a week.
Poll: More Americans support striking UAW workers than auto companies
Kentucky Truck is Ford's largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world, Ford said in a statement after the strike began. In addition to affecting approximately 9,000 direct employees at the plant, the work stoppage will create "painful aftershocks" that stand to affect more than 100,000 people.