The national agreement between Ford and the United Auto Workers appears to be in jeopardy.
A union official says 92% of workers at a Kansas City plant voted to reject it. Of the 5 Ford workforces to vote so far, the official says 3 have rejected the deal.
Local union leaders in Louisville are so concerned; they brought in UAW International President Ron Gettelfinger to explain the contract.
"This is my local union and I've avoided coming here a lot of times when I've been invited because I never wanted to be shown favoritism here," Gettelfinger told WHAS11’s Joe Arnold.
But in his last term as UAW International President, Gettelfinger is making a personal appeal to workers in his hometown that Ford needs the proposed changes to keep labor costs in line with competitors GM and Chrysler but local workers aren't so sure.
"We discussed many things and I can't say without reservation I've decided which way I'm going to vote," said UAW member Mark Cheatham after hearing Gettelfinger’s message.
Local workers are getting a mixed message from their leaders. WHAS11 News has learned that one of Louisville's delegates on the national Ford council voted against the contract. Stone acknowledged that about 7 of the 200 member council voted not to forward it to the membership for a vote.
The rest of the union leadership is feverishly trying to correct what they say is an effort to mislead workers that the contract would take away the right to strike.
Instead, they say the only limitation in the new contract is that workers could not strike over the amount of a wage or benefit increase. Workers could still strike if Ford cut wages or benefits.
After hearing one Ford worker complain to WHAS11 that his wages were being cut in half, a union official said no wages are being cut in the new contract. In fact, the official says the contract provides more money for about 280 laid off workers.
“They can see through where it's not a minus for them and that's the main thing,” said Steve Stone, the UAW Building Chairman at Louisville Assembly Plant.
He says fear is driving the opposition and, “they're tired of voting really. even the negotiators call it voter fatigue and we have a lot of it right now.”
UAW Member Robert Sutton says he’s tired of Ford repeatedly asking for changes.
“If you say something's going to last two years, it should last two years, instead of nine months,” Sutton said.
Ironically, the worker angst here comes as we also learning of Ford's expansion plans for the Louisville Assembly Plant.
Sources say the automaker plans to shift the manufacture of the Kuga compact SUV from Germany to Louisville. Kuga production would include the export of some 80,000 vehicles per year.
Indeed, the new contract calls for a new vehicle for the Fern Valley Road plant that could be exported to other markets. Stone says that could add more than 2,000 jobs to LAP.
“Full three shifts, approximately right now based on the line speeds we do right now and 80,000 units, we could have possibly be back to the numbers we were at in the 1990's which is about 3400 people,” Stone said.
Louisville Ford workers begin 3 days of voting on Wednesday.
Local 862 union officials say they know that the new contract includes a product commitment for Louisville, but they don't know what will happen if the deal is rejected.
“Ultimately, the membership is going to make the vote. We voted to bring it back to the membership and recommend it,” Stone explained.
Does Stone think that the future of LAP hangs in the balance on this vote?
“No,” Stone said, “Obviously, there could be changes. I think Louisville Assembly Plant we have done the right things in the past and will continue to do them.
The effect, they are going to make product sourcing if this doesn't go through, I think Louisville will be alright. Some of the other commitments? I can only guess.”
