SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Workers laid off from the Sharonville Ford plant might join the strike at General Motors Cincinnati Parts Distribution Center starting next Monday.
Tod Turner, president of the United Auto Workers Local 863, said the workers who were laid off will decide on Thursday if they want to join the picket line three hours a week or do community service three hours a week. He said they’ll have to do one of these to get their $500 dollars weekly strike pay.
“We’re meeting with all the members that are laid off for an informational meeting just to let them know what’s going on, to kind of answer any questions that they have, hopefully put their mind at ease a little bit on where we are at in this process,” Turner said. “We’re going to explain to them on Thursday we’re going to have another meeting in which they’ll register for their pay and benefits while they are laid off.”
Turner said Local 863 is not on strike, so they will not picket at the Sharonville plant. Only if they get called to strike will they be seen outside the Ford plant.
The Sharonville workers will provide some relief to workers like Isaac Tussey who are on strike six hours a week twice a week.
“Honestly that’s a good thing for us because we are such a small facility and then on top of that those guys will be doing the picket duty here with us,” said Tussey, a parts handler at GM’s Cincinnati PDC West Chester location. “We would love for things to get done quicker. We’d like to be doing our jobs, but we’re willing to stand out here and do what it takes to get a fair contract. That’s all we’re asking for.”
Turner said his members were prepared for the layoffs, and he anticipates that number increase.
“If this strike continues to go on at Kentucky Truck, we look for that number to possibly grow too,” Turner said.
He said members will first meet on Tuesday to have an informational meeting about the layoffs.
“This is all new to all of us. That’s why we’re having these informational meetings with our laid-off members to kind of give them an understanding of what’s going on,” Turner said.
Turner said the layoffs started Monday. Roughly 300 workers in multiple departments across all three shifts, but primarily the midnight shift, were impacted. A representative for Ford confirmed that 306 employees were laid off, and said the layoffs were a result of the strike at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.
More than 8,000 union members went on strike last week at Louisville's plant, which is Ford's largest plant in the world. The plant's assembly lines build multiple Ford vehicles, which then use transmissions from plants like Sharonville's.
Turner previously said he was surprised that the Sharonville plant wasn't part of the strikes, especially because the Ford Sharonville Transmission Plant makes the transmission for one of the most popular vehicles in the world: the Ford F-250.
Workers at GM's West Chester location were then called to join the strike on Sept. 22.
Roughly 100 union members went on strike with that plant. GM's website says 123 people work at the West Chester facility.
The nationwide strikes have targeted the Big Three — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. UAW went on strike Sept. 15 when it couldn’t reach agreements on new contracts with the Big Three.
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