The hard working men and women at the Ford Blue Oval SK (BOSK) plant in Hardin County will vote on forming a union later this month. Their campaign to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) is about winning safe working conditions, a voice on the job and affordable healthcare. But the vote is also a huge opportunity for every working-class Kentuckian across the state.
That’s because the challenges facing Kentucky auto workers in recent decades mirror what’s happened to the entire workforce. As our recent report at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy shows, job quality in the Kentucky auto industry has declined as it has become less unionized. In the last decade, median production wages fell by $9,321 a year after taking inflation into account.
Once widely perceived as “good jobs,” many parts and assembly occupations now don’t pay enough for a decent life. And alongside deteriorating pay is a lack of say in issues like safety and health, a huge concern for BOSK workers exposed to dangerous chemicals.
But the historic strike and contract victory by the UAW in 2023 is beginning to turn things around. UAW members won a 25% increase in wages among other key improvements. Non-union employers were startled by the size of UAW’s win. Immediately, BOSK and Toyota bumped up wages. But that just provided a taste of what would come if those workers had a union of their own.
When wage earners join together and fight, it helps not just them but workers at similar businesses. To compete for employees or because they fear unions, those companies increase job quality. But as the share of Kentucky workers who are unionized fell from 26% in 1979 to 11% today, that leverage has weakened. As a result, wages for workers across the middle and the bottom of the economy have stagnated while incomes at the top soared.
Union density has dropped because powerful corporations lobbied to weaken labor laws and undermine unions. They’ve pursued aggressive anti-union propaganda campaigns, including at BOSK, where the company has spent untold amounts of money on high-dollar consultants and slick advertising. UAW alleges that BOSK has fired workers for organizing and forced them to attend closed-door captive audience meetings, both of which are illegal.
As a maker of electric vehicle batteries, BOSK is the future of automobile production. Governor Beshear calls it the largest battery plant “on planet Earth,” and media coverage of the plant has been extensive. Similarly, the decision its workers make on a union will be widely watched by Kentucky workers. Some will ask: “If those workers can come together for a voice and dignity at their workplace, why can’t we?”
Kentuckians have another stake in this fight as well: we all helped pay for BOSK. The Kentucky General Assembly held a special legislative session in 2021 to give the company a $250 million check, and the federal government has provided $9.6 billion in loans. Isn’t it reasonable to expect safe jobs, respect for workers and economy-boosting wages for such a massive investment of public dollars?
The BOSK workers have discovered a truth so many of us have never experienced. Solidarity is a miracle drug. It’s the closest we have to a cure for an ailing and unequal society.
Do what you can to support these workers in the coming weeks. Their win is a win for all of us.
This column ran in The Kentucky Lantern on August 6, the Courier Journal on August 7, the Lexington Herald-Leader on August 12.
