F-150 is a key to profits and the best-selling truck in North America.
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The 7,500-worker plant makes the F-150 pickup, Ford’s most popular model, and the Transit commercial van. The UAW has called for a strike this weekend, if Ford fails to reach a new local contract.
Ford-UAW Department Vice President Jimmy Settles said in an update to membership on Tuesday that he’s given 120-hour notice to Ford and made a request to the worldwide union for a strike at Local 249, which has been granted.
At issue is a labor agreement between the local United Auto Workers union and the plant, located just outside of Kansas City.
Ford motor has a five-day period notice in order to handle this matter.
“Until we have reached a tentative agreement, there is no way to guess what our contract will possess”, Settles wrote. The news about the strike broke out on the media on Tuesday evening.
Settles says the company isn’t bargaining in good faith over staffing provisions, heat stress and skilled trade schedules. The production is slow due to adjustments at the factory. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in net income, good cash flow from operations, growth in earnings per share and notable return on equity.
Ford representative said: “We work every day to avoid a disruption of our production”.
In addition, UAW members have rejected a proposed national agreement that would have covered more than 30,000 workers at Fiat Chrysler plants in the U.S. In spite of pay raise and bigger bonus offers, the case remains unresolved.
Dziczek said if the two sides were making progress by Friday, they could extend the agreement again, but a strike authorization from the worldwide was an important step.
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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. Earlier, the union had said its deadline to strike was late Friday.
