Ford production workers at Kentucky, Louisville vote against new labor deal

Production workers at Ford’s Louisville assembly and Kentucky truck plants have voted against the tentative labor agreement, while skilled trades workers voted in favor, the local chapter of the United Auto Workers (UAW) said on Monday.

The ratification of the contract was voted down by 55% of the production workers whereas 69% of the skilled trades workers, which includes maintenance and construction employees backed it, the UAW Local 862 said in a Facebook post.

The union did not disclose the overall percentage of the votes in favor or the total number of votes cast.

The vote signals that approval of the deal, which is set to significantly raise Ford’s costs, is not guaranteed. The union and the company did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

The automaker had last month pulled its full-year forecast due to uncertainty over the pending ratification of the deal with the UAW.

Union workers are voting on contracts from each of Chrysler-owner Stellantis, GM and Ford, after the first coordinated strike against Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Of the total votes cast at Ford’s various facilities so far, 70.7% of workers have voted in favor of the deal, according to a UAW vote tracker.

Workers at some of the company’s major plants including the Dearborn Truck plant in Michigan are yet to vote.

On Friday, union members at General Motors’ Flint assembly plant in Michigan narrowly voted against the proposed contract with the U.S. automaker.