ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — Hundreds of potential Ford employees showed up Tuesday evening at the first BlueOval SK recruitment event in Elizabethtown, at the company's newly opened executive office off Ring Road.
The $5.8 billion battery plant project in Glendale is an investment from parent companies Ford and SK On. The project is creating 5,000 jobs in Kentucky.
The company's ramp-up strategy includes making 450 hires for the Glendale plant by the end of 2023.
"We are looking to employ all Kentuckians," Neva Burke, the director of human resources at BlueOval SK, said. "We're looking local, we want the local presence. We want people to know in this community that we value what they bring to BlueOval SK, so it's very important to us to be local."
Locals like Elizabethtown native Felissa Graves, who joined her husband and daughter at the job fair, who is excited for what the multi-billion dollar project is expected to bring to her town.
"I think it's amazing that E-town is getting bigger and stronger, the diversity is just amazing and I'm just happy to be here in E-town," said Graves.
Burke said choosing Central Kentucky for the battery plant came from the available workforce in Hardin County.
"The workforce here is rich and deep and dedicated," Burke said. "There was so many opportunities for graduates from colleges and high schools that this became a very good location."
The growing pains for Glendale and Elizabethtown have drawn scrutiny over how the infrastructure will handle it. While that's addressed, there is support.
"E-town is just blossoming, and the more the merrier," Graves said.
The company is planning to open operations at the Glendale plant by 2025, while production at the second plant is now on hold.
As far as workers at BlueOval SK unionizing goes, UAW Local 862 president Todd Dunn says the tentative UAW contract with Ford does not have in writing the requirement for Glendale employees to be union.
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