Located in Hardin County, employees at the facility said their campaign to join the United Auto Workers is about winning safe working conditions, affordable health care, and having a voice on the job.
Haylee Hadfield, quality control operator for BlueOval SK, said workers want to feel valued for the expertise and hard work that goes into their jobs.
"They were going to treat us like expendable assets," Hadfield contended. "Which, if you've ever worked in manufacturing, or any kind of work where you know you are generating revenue for an investor or someone other than yourself, to an exorbitant level, that's not cool!"
Supporters of the effort said communities across the Commonwealth stand to gain from a union win. According to a Kentucky Center for Economic Policy report, there are fewer good jobs in the automotive industry and over the past decade, annual average wages have declined by thousands of dollars when adjusted for inflation.
BlueOval SK is a joint venture of Ford Motor Company and South Korea’s SK Group. The company's Hardin County facility said it eventually expects to employ around 5,000 people.
In 2023, United Auto Workers members won a 25% increase in wages and other key improvements in highly-publicized contract negotiations. Nonunion employers were startled by the scope of the win. Hadfield pointed out Kentucky manufacturing plants took notice and bumped up pay at the time.
"It's because they recognize that when we had that huge recession in 2008, we as the workers took a lot of concessions on our contracts," Hadfield recounted. "So that we could keep our doors open and we wouldn't have to forfeit our jobs."
She added taxpayers have helped the plant’s success and should expect safe working conditions and salaries benefiting local communities. In 2021, Kentucky lawmakers gave the company $250 million in corporate subsidies.