An election to determine whether workers unionize an elect
ric vehicle battery manufacturing complex in Kentucky was in limbo due to a few dozen disputed ballots that could swing the outcome.
The United Auto Workers claimed it secured a narrow victory at the BlueOval SK battery park after the two-da
y vote that ended Wednesday. Yet the outcome ultimately could depend on 41 challenged ballots that the UAW conte
nded were “illegitimate” and should not be counted. The company urged the National Labor Relations Board, whic
h ran the election, to count each eligible vote because “every voice matters.”
The UAW is hoping to gain another victory at the BlueOval SK co
mplex to expand its foothold in the South and at battery factories that will power the next wave of EVs. Unions have strug
gled 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 n
early $6 billion joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and its South K
orean 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.
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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.
“We believe they are illegitimate and represent nothing more than an employer tactic to flood the unit and undermine the outcome,” the UAW said in a statement. “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 union said that those casting 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.”
Gov. Andy Beshear says the battery park that sprung up in Glendale — a community of around 2,000 residents an hour south of Louisville — is the single largest economic investment in Kentucky’s history. The complex includes two manufacturing plants but production has started at just one of them.
Touting himself as pro-union, Beshear said Thursday that if the complex “ends up being a union facility, I think what the company’s going to see is that union workers are some of the best workers. And the ability to attract even more workers will be a positive in the long term for BlueOval.” The second-term Democratic governor is seen as a potential White House contender in 2028.
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.