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(Reuters) -United Auto Workers on Wednesday shut down Ford (NYSE:F)’s biggest plant globally, halting production of lucrative pickup trucks with little warning, in a sharp escalation of the union’s strike against the Detroit Three automakers.
The UAW said that 8,700 union members at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant went on strike after the union said the No. 2 U.S. automaker refused to move further in contract bargaining.
The move comes as the coordinated strike against Ford, General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler-owner Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) is in its fourth week, and after progress last week at the bargaining table.
The plant generates $25 billion in annual revenue, about a sixth of the company’s global automotive revenue.
For the past four weeks, UAW President Shawn Fain ordered new walkouts on Fridays in video addresses. Wednesday’s move came as Ford and UAW bargainers were working to resolve differences on retirement security and union representation of Ford’s future battery plants, a Ford official said.
The Ford official said Shawn Fain and other UAW officials called a meeting with Ford at 5:30 pm ET on Wednesday and demanded a new offer. Ford officials did not have a new offer on pay and economic issues. “You just lost Kentucky Truck,” Fain said, according to the Ford official.
Ford said the decision is “grossly irresponsible but unsurprising given the union leadership’s stated strategy of keeping the Detroit 3 wounded for months through ‘reputational damage’ and ‘industrial chaos.'”
“It is a very profitable plant and because there was no notice at all, it will be particularly disruptive,” said Harley Shaiken, labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“This is a major step hitting the bottom line,” Shaiken said. “This sends a signal that the union could escalate this strike any moment of the day or night. This is unchartered territory for both sides. The union has never used this strategy and Ford has never experienced this strategy.”
The UAW on Friday had held off on additional strikes against Detroit Three auto plants on Friday, citing GM’s unexpected willingness to allow workers at joint-venture battery plants to be covered by union contracts.
Before Wednesday’s Ford announcement the union had ordered walkouts at five assembly plants, including two Ford plants, at the three companies and 38 parts depots operated by GM and Stellantis.
