How did they not see this coming?
United Auto Workers slammed Ford Motor Company’s plan to move construction of a new plant to Mexico rather than keep it in Ohio in a letter to the automaker Friday.
“We 100% reject the company’s decision to put corporate greed and more potential profits over American jobs and the future of our members. We expect the company to honor its contractual commitments to this membership and when it fails to do so we will take action,” Gerald Kariem, vice president of the union’s Ford sector, said in the letter. “We are intensely exploring our options at this time.”
According to the 400,000-strong union, Ford had allotted $900 million for the construction of the plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, in a 2019 contract. UAW said that the addition of a next-generation vehicle would “secure [the plant’s] employment well into the foreseeable future.”
The letter lays out that UAW and Ford held multiple meetings during 2019 negotiations, during which the union’s bargaining team decided its central focus would be to “increase job security” for UAW’s membership. Discussions focused on “maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the United States.” Unsurprisingly, with Biden in the Oval Office, this focus has not held with time.