Gov. Beshear visits striking Kentucky Truck Plant workers
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WTVQ) — Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday visited Kentucky Truck Plant workers who are striking in Louisville.
In photos on the United Auto Workers website, Beshear provided strikers with sandwiches and “expressed his support” for those on the picket line.
Nearly 9,000 workers walked off the job around 6 p.m. on Oct. 11 hoping for better pay and benefits.
In August, union members practiced a picket line, hoping for better pay and benefits before the contract expired Sept. 15.
“We all want to get back to work we all want to get a contract, it’s time for Ford Motor Company to come rest their way to the table and work with our national negotiators,” Local 862 president Todd Dunn told ABC affiliate WHAS.
In a statement last week, Ford called the decision by the UAW to strike at the KTP “grossly irresponsible but unsurprising.”
“The UAW leadership’s decision to reject this record contract offer — which the UAW has publicly described as the best offer on the table — and strike Kentucky Truck Plant, carries serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers,” Ford’s statement continued. “Kentucky Truck is Ford’s largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world. The vehicles produced at the Louisville-based factory — the F-Series Super Duty, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator — generate $25 billion a year in revenue.
“This decision by the UAW is all the more wrongheaded given that Ford is the only automaker to add UAW jobs since the Great Recession and assemble all of its full-size trucks in America,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, Beshear’s opponent in November’s gubernatorial race took to social media, blaming the strike on “Bidenomics.”
“Not even the members of the United Auto Workers can withstand the effects of Bidenomics. I hope the UAW and Ford can reach a swift resolution,” Daniel Cameron wrote on X. “Andy Beshear thinks our economy is doing just fine. Kentuckians know nothing could be further from the truth.”
Workers have been on strike now for over a week.
The large F-Series pick-up trucks are made at the KTP. The trucks are among Ford’s most profitable vehicles.
The plant also makes the Super Duty, another profitable vehicle for the automaker.
