An election to determine whether workers unionize an electric vehicle battery manufacturing complex in Glendale is in limbo Thursday due to a few dozen disputed ballots that could swing the outcome.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) claimed it secured a narrow victory at the BlueOval SK Battery Park after the two-day vote that ended Wednesday. Yet the outcome ultimately could depend on 41 challenged ballots that the UAW contended were “illegitimate” and should not be counted. The company urged the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which ran the election, to count each eligible vote because “every voice matters.”
The UAW is hoping to gain another victory at the BlueOval SK complex to expand its foothold in the south and at battery factories that will power the next wave of EVs. Unions have struggled to establish a foothold in the south, where organized labor is much weaker, but the UAW has made inroads.
The election occurred about a week after production began at the sprawling EV battery complex, a nearly $6 billion joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its South Korean partner, SK On. Batteries from this plant will power the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup and its EV cargo van, the E-Transit.
The tally was 526 votes for the union and 515 against union representation, the NLRB said Thursday, plus the 41 challenged ballots that it said were sufficient to affect the results. The NLRB will review whether those disputed ballots will be counted.
Those eligible to vote in the union election included all full-time and part-time production and maintenance workers employed at BlueOval SK’s Glendale facility during the payroll period ending July 26, the NLRB had said.
Challenged ballots could include safety emergency response staff at the plant. Their eligibility was not determined when the NLRB directed the election. They could vote but their ballots would be challenged with their eligibility resolved afterward, the NLRB said before the election.
UAW released the following statement on the vote:
“Tonight, BlueOval SK workers won a majority of votes in an NLRB election to unionize their plant in Glendale, Kentucky, securing a hard-fought victory. This is a major step forward for workers who stood up against intense company opposition and chose to join the UAW.
“There are 41 challenge ballots still outstanding. We believe they are illegitimate and represent nothing more than an employer tactic to flood the unit and undermine the outcome. We will fight these challenges to defend the democratic choices of these workers, as we always do when corporations try to interfere with workers’ democratic choice. The challenged ballots are not part of the group of workers who built their union from the bottom up. They deserve to have their own union, in an appropriate bargaining unit with a representative of their own choosing.
“The UAW is calling on Ford to acknowledge the democratic decision of its workforce. They should immediately drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election and recognize a majority of BlueOval SK’s production and maintenance employees have chosen to join the UAW and ensure battery jobs in Kentucky are good, safe, union jobs.”
(Photo: Aerial view of BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale, courtesy of Korean Times)
By the Associated Press and Ken Howlett, News Director
