Workers at a Kentucky electric vehicle battery manufacturing complex are set to vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, following recent organized labor victories at a pair of other U.S. auto factories in the U.S. South.
The Associated Press reports that the two-day vote at the BlueOval SK battery park in Glendale, Kentucky, is set to close at the end of the day on August 27, just a week after production began at one of two manufacturing plants at the complex. The complex was opened as a $6 billion joint venture between Ford and South Korea's SK On, and produces batteries to power Ford's F-150 EV pickup truck and its EV cargo van.
Workers at the Glendale complex filed for a union election in January, before receiving federal approval to move forward with the vote in July. Although BlueOval SK has stated that it would prefer to maintain a "direct relationship" with employees at the complex, successful bids to join the UAW from workers in Tennessee at a General Motors EV plant and a Volkswagen assembly plant could be a sign of growing momentum for organized labor in the South. However, separate votes to organize at two Mercedes factories in Alabama in 2024 fell short.
