LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It's been just over one day since the Kentucky Truck Plant (KTP) joined the union strike.
And the UAW Local 862 president has a warning about what could come next in Louisville, Kentucky.
"Should be by [Friday], they should be down and not able to run at the Louisville Assembly Plant," President Todd Dunn said. "[KTP] provides the parts that are crucial to completing the unit and body shop and getting it out."
Since 8,700 UAW workers walked off the job Wednesday afternoon at KTP, Dunn speculated more than 3,000 workers at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP) could face layoffs.
"We're working right now to strategize how we're going to deal with the layoffs," he said. "I feel that Ford, Ford Motor Company has created this problem."
In August, union members practiced a picket line, hoping for better pay and benefits before the contract expired Sept. 15.
Striking workers will receive $500 a week from the union’s strike pay fund. By contrast, anyone who is laid off would qualify for state unemployment aid, which, depending on a variety of circumstances, could be less or more than $500 a week.
Dunn said, taking into account KTP workers alone, UAW will spend $4.5 million a week from its strike fund.
Strikes in other parts of the country have led to layoffs at other plants, including parts plants in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan impacted by workers striking at the Jeep plant in Toledo.
As KTP workers wait another six days to receive strike fund pay, other parts of the supply chain are weighing in on the impact of the historic strike.
"It's always tough on a community," Kevin Collins, of Bill Collins Ford, said. "It's painful. You can imagine that it has a complete impact on our business."
Collins said the back-and-forth has slowed down about a quarter of the dealership's business, especially with this most recent move hitting so close to home.
"They're doing that, it's for a reason, so I respect that," Lilliana Garcia, the general manager of Mariscos Los Plebes, said. It operates down the road from KTP.
Garcia said she is standing with her Ford regulars, but also underscored the impact one of the U.S.'s largest assembly plants has on local business.
"We do have a lot of customers, especially to-go orders," she said. "if it stays like this, yes, we'll have to re-adjust. But, I don't know for exactly how long."
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