In a surprise move Wednesday night, the United Auto Workers union expanded its strike against Ford. (F) – Get a free report to the company’s highly profitable Kentucky Truck plant, where Ford produces its Super Duty trucks, as well as the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
This latest expansion brings the total number of striking UAW workers to about 34,000 workers, about 23% of the UAW’s 150,000 members.
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A Ford source said CNBC that the union had requested a meeting with Ford at 5:30 pm on Wednesday. When Ford didn’t extend his cash offer, union president Shawn Fain reportedly said Ford had “lost Kentucky Truck.” The meeting lasted 10 minutes.
“We’ve been very clear and we’ve waited long enough, but Ford hasn’t gotten the message,” Fain said in a statement. “It’s time to get a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers who will close this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it.”
This latest escalation represents a change of form for the union; Previously, notice of additional strikes came every Friday morning at the conclusion of a publicized briefing by Fain himself.
Ford said in a statement that the move was “extremely irresponsible but not surprising given union leaders’ stated strategy of keeping the Detroit Three hurt for months through ‘reputational damage’ and ‘industrial chaos.'”
The plant in question is Ford’s most profitable, generating around $25 billion in annual sales. The strike of 8,700 workers at that plant, according to Wells Fargo analysts, will cost Ford around $150 million a week in profits.
“We believe this escalation is a sign that the UAW could be close to a contract proposal with Ford in the next 1-2 weeks,” Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan said in the note.
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The UAW’s demands for 40% wage increases, cost-of-living adjustments, a shorter work week and better benefits have been met with resistance from the Detroit Three as the strikes have gradually expanded since their start on the 14th. of September.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the start of the strike that if the company had agreed to the union’s demands a few years ago, Ford would have “gone bankrupt” by now.
Meanwhile, some analysts see the latest escalation as a sign that the strikes, which economists say have cost the economy billions, are coming to an end.
“Pressure was always necessary to force a deal,” Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally wrote in a Thursday note.
