Ford hit with UAW strike notice at Kentucky truck plant
UAW autoworkers have served Ford (F) a strike notice at its Kentucky truck plant. According to the notice, if local contract issues are not resolved by next Friday, about 9,000 workers will go on strike.
Yahoo Finance Autos Reporter Pras Subramanian joins the Live show to discuss the latest development for Ford and how it could impact operations moving forward.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: Ford is once again facing the threat of a strike at one of its plants here in the US. Let's get to Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian. And Pras, we were talking off camera here. It does feel like this one's kind of-- this story is flying under the radar a bit, but this is important.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, around midday today, this UAW put out a statement saying that they're going to strike potentially next week at Kentucky Truck Plant, this big super duty plant that makes a lot of money for Ford. It's cited as one of the biggest reasons why people are excited about Ford stock in particular.
JOSH LIPTON: Those super duty, highly profitable, right?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, the Ford Pro Division, which kind of manages the super duty trucks is highly profitable. So interesting timing here with that because just yesterday Jim Farley was at the Wolfe Mobility Conference talking about how the relationship between the UAW and Ford has been damaged. They need to rethink their factory footprint in light of the UAW strikes. And he cited the KTP, the Kentucky Truck Plant is a reason why this strike was so damaging.
And next day, we see the UAW saying local union rules have not been sort of followed. It's been five months and they need to get a new contract. So the next week, they want to strike. But here's the thing, there's, I think, 19 other Ford plants that have local UAW contracts that are not been signed in addition to other big three plants. So they're kind of picking Ford here in particular, this one plant, very interesting timing.
JULIE HYMAN: I mean they've been-- they were very strategic before when they were doing the strike, so I guess it's no surprise that they're trying to be strategic once again in pushing this. Thanks so much.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Fain and Farley right now is kind of going to be the main event.
JOSH LIPTON: Big personalities.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah.
JULIE HYMAN: We will stay on top of it thanks to you. Thanks, Pras.
