Whatever happened to the effort by workers to unionize KY’s EV battery plant?
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Unionization efforts at the BlueOval SK battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky, are becoming a critical moment in the South’s growing electric vehicle production sector. Workers at the under-construction plant are still dedicated to having a fair election for their union so they can begin negotiating a contract protecting their safety and benefits.
But their efforts continue to face hurdles as claims of unfair labor practices brought against the plant and a request for further investigation into the company’s alleged anti-union practices await review by the national board responsible for enforcing labor law.
A supermajority of workers at the plant signed union authorization cards last November — the first step in their public campaign to join the United Auto Workers, one of the country’s largest labor unions representing automobile and other manufacturing workers. Then in January, workers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote, the first move of the year for formal organizing among Southern autoworkers.
Just six months later and a few days after an NLRB regional director said the workplace qualified for its election, the UAW asked the board to investigate the companies behind the electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant. Workers say Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based SK On have launched an anti-union campaign that’s interfered with scheduling the election and keeping it fair.
“We have been waiting for this for a long time,” said quality department worker Emily Drueke. “However, we are asking the NLRB to ensure a fair playing field.”
The call for an investigation is in addition to six open cases of unfair labor practices filed with the NLRB against BlueOval between November 2024 and July 2025. Detailed information is not public until the cases close, but allegations range from interrogation, coercive actions and statements, threats, surveillance and employee firings.
“They (workers) stood up and organized because they want what everyone deserves — a safe job and a voice at work,” said UAW Region 8 Director Tim Smith.
“Battery jobs are growing fast here in Kentucky, but they should be good, safe union jobs — not jobs where workers get hurt and silenced. We need a fair shot to vote without the company trying to rig the outcome.”
Latest union election hurdle
In the July 1 news release in which the UAW calls NLRB to investigate, workers say the company’s anti-union actions have “poisoned the atmosphere around the election — especially in a workplace already plagued by safety concerns.”
Those concerns were highlighted in a May media report that found workers had been using faulty safety equipment, were exposed to toxic chemicals on the job and had broken bones at work.
Production associate Rob Collett said the union is about making working conditions safer for workers through a contract.
“BOSK wants to act like there are no safety issues here,” he said. “But the chemicals we work with are dangerous. We want the ability to speak up and make things safer.”
Workers like Collett and others say the company has retaliated against vocal union supporters, forced workers into private meetings and threatened to shut down the plant altogether.
The UAW says the plant’s workers claim Ford has bought anti-union ads, distributed anti-union merchandise and brought in consultants to expose workers to anti-union campaigning.
These things combined have led to the ask for the NLRB to “hold the company accountable and the election until the Board can begin investigating the company’s actions and restore the conditions for a free and fair vote.”
UAW Vice President and Director of the Ford Department, Laura Dickerson, said Ford workers have had a union for over 80 years. “Ford knows better,” she said. “... You can’t have a fair vote when the company is flooding the plant with fear and propaganda.”
BlueOval SK Senior Communications Manager Mallory Cooke told the Herald-Leader the UAW’s call for an investigation is “designed to thwart the election process” and that once it’s complete, “will prove whether a majority of our team members want to keep their direct relationship with their leadership team or turn over their voice to the UAW.”
“We are disappointed by the dishonest tactic of the UAW in stalling a timely and fair election at BlueOval SK’s Kentucky 1 plant. The union proclaimed for months that it wants a vote because it said a ‘majority’ of team members support the UAW,” Cooke said. “Now, the union has filed a blocking charge with the NLRB to stop this secret ballot election.”
The NLRB’s national and regional offices did not respond to phone calls and email requests for comment.
Where’s BlueOval and what does it make
The site of the battery plant is about 100 miles southwest of Lexington in Hardin County just outside Elizabethtown. Workers at the plant are production and quality operators, maintenance technicians and manufacturing process engineers where they’re making batteries for Ford’s electric vehicles.
Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based SK On began building the nearly $6 billion, 1,500-acre campus in 2022. Two plants, each estimated to employ 2,500, are being built at the site and one is expected to produce batteries by the end of this year.
According to 2023 estimates from a study commissioned by the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce, once complete, the entire plant will become the largest electric vehicle battery plant in the world and the second largest manufacturing site in the country in terms of square footage.
It’s expected to bring more than 22,000 new residents to the area, the report says. By 2026, direct plant payroll is anticipated to hit $265 million. In the decade following, expected direct payroll impact will surpass $2.6 billion.
Autoworkers and industry history in Kentucky
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said in a report following the union petition in February that a successful union vote would result in significant job improvement for workers at the plant. Since autoworkers play a pivotal role in the state’s economy, a BlueOval union might cause positive ripple effects.
“It is exactly the kind of worker-led action needed to put Kentucky’s economy on the high road of good quality jobs that allow families to thrive,” the report says. “In doing so, it could be an important step toward ending decades of wage stagnation and catalyzing a stronger economy for all Kentuckians.”
Between 1990 and 2023, Kentucky automobile manufacturing jobs grew 138% from 28,000 to 66,000 and the sector’s employment rate is near a record high, KyPolicy’s report says. The increase in autoworkers outpaced the state’s employment more broadly which grew 38% in the same three-decade period.
But wages for those auto jobs have not kept pace with standards of living or with inflation despite public subsidies (in BlueOval’s case, state-funded job training and a facility loan alongside conditional loans from the Department of Energy) and strong profits, especially as the transition to electric vehicles heats up.
The KyPolicy report says pressure from successful UAW bargaining at Louisville’s Kentucky Truck Plant and Ford Assembly Plant, and at Bowling Green’s General Motors Corvette facility has resulted in non-union plants across the state to boost wages.
In December, BlueOval said starting wages would increase by between $2.50 and $3.50 per hour to as little as $21 per hour and as much as $32 per hour.
This story was originally published July 9, 2025 at 9:23 AM.
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