Battery Workers Employed At BlueOval SK In Kentucky ‘File For First Major Union Election In The South In 2025’ As They Organize With The United Auto Workers
(GLENDALE, KENTUCKY) - A super-majority of Workers at Battery-Maker BlueOval SK have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a vote to form their Union with the United Auto Workers (UAW).
The election filing at BlueOval SK (BOSK), a new joint venture of Ford and SK On, is the first major filing in the South in 2025 and continues the movement of Southern Auto Workers organizing with the UAW.
“We’re forming our Union so we can have a say in our safety and our working conditions,” Halee Hadfield, a Quality Operator at BOSK, said. “The chemicals we’re working with can be extremely dangerous. If something goes wrong, a massive explosion can occur. With our Union, we can speak up if we see there’s a problem and make sure we’re keeping ourselves and the whole community safe.”
The BOSK workers publicly launched their campaign to join the UAW in November once a super-majority of Workers had signed Union cards.
The company responded to the campaign by hiring Anti-Union consultants who are trying to block the Workers from organizing, Union Officials said.
In December, the BOSK Workers held a town hall in Elizabethtown, Kentucky with UAW Members from Ultium Cells in Lordstown, Ohio, which makes battery cells for GM’s electric vehicle fleet.
Ultium opened as a Non-Union Plant in 2022 and Workers there encountered many of the same problems the BOSK Workers face now.
Andrew McLean, a Logistics Worker in formation at BOSK, said: “I have worked both Union and Non-Union jobs and have seen the power of a Union firsthand. Right now, we don’t have a say at BOSK. With a Union, we’ll be on a level playing field with management. That’s so important when you’re getting a new plant off the ground. The Union allows us to give honest feedback without fear of retaliation.”
The BOSK Workers are building on the victories at Ultium in Lordstown and also at the new Ultium Plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee where Workers joined the UAW in September.
The growing Unionization Movement among Non-Union Battery Workers across the country, and especially in the South, builds off the success of the UAW’s Stand Up Strike at The Big Three - and the victory by Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who became the first Southern Auto Workers outside The Big Three to win their Union when they voted to join the UAW in April.
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