Ford workers threaten to strike F-150 plant

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 global union for a strike at Local 249, which has been granted.

The Fiat Chrysler workers have been voting on an agreement over the last week and it appears to be going down to defeat.

Union members at Ford’s Claycomo plant are threatening a strike.

“The company refuses to address important issues around safety, seniority and manpower at KCAP”, Todd Hillyard, bargaining chairman for Local 249, wrote in a message to workers posted online Tuesday. The company and the worker’s union now have five days to settle the dispute and come forth with a win-win situation, which would include a local pact different from the national labor contract that is currently being negotiated.

“Until we have reached a tentative agreement, there is no way to guess what our contract will possess”, Settles wrote.

Most auto plants have both a local labor agreement as well as a national agreement that covers all of the automaker’s USA operations. The F-150 pickup truck, also produced at a factory in Dearborn, Michigan, is the top selling Ford model in North America and a key driver of the company’s annual profit. A second plant in the Detroit area also builds F-150s.

Negotiators for the union and Ford have met more than 40 times since April, Automotive News said.

Any labor inactivity or strike of any magnitude could drastically impact production at the company’s four million square foot plant.

The assembly plant pinned a strike assignment notification to its union members, specifying when and where they will be required to picket.

“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”, said spokeswoman Kristina Adamski.