The United Auto Workers' next test for its southern automotive organizing effort starts Tuesday as hundreds of workers at Ford Motor Co.'s joint-venture electric vehicle battery complex are expected to vote on whether to join the Detroit-based union.

A loss for the UAW at the BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale, Kentucky, would be stunning, experts said, given its connections to the Dearborn automaker and that the state already has a number of UAW-represented plants.

But it's nonetheless important for the future of the union in light of industry expectations that EVs eventually will dominate vehicle sales, with batteries replacing the engines, transmissions and other parts many UAW members make today. Results from the vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board are expected by Thursday morning.

The vote also communicates the confidence nonunion workers have in the UAW in navigating a fluctuating future as demand for EVs misses expectations, President Donald Trump rolls back policies he's described as an "EV mandate" and he frequently changes tariffs.

The election also comes as UAW President Shawn Fain is facing investigations by a court-appointed monitor over allegations of retaliation against other officers, and members will nominate UAW officials for election at next summer's Constitutional Convention.

"A loss would speak volumes," said Marick Masters, a professor emeritus of management at Wayne State University. "It would simply say that the UAW brand is in question more than maybe people thought it was."

The UAW filed for the Kentucky election in January after a "supermajority" of workers at the two-plant site, which is expected to support 5,000 jobs, signed union authorization cards.

BlueOval SK, which is a venture between Ford and Korean battery partner SK On Ltd., sought to delay the vote. But the NLRB scheduled the election for Tuesday and Wednesday after production began last week at the Kentucky 1 plant.

"We'll see where it goes," Fain said earlier this month about the BOSK vote at a rally for Dearborn steelworkers. "BOSK has ran a very ugly, very aggressive, very anti-union campaign built on a bunch of lies, and unfortunately, they break the law, just like all these companies do, and it's been a trend under this new administration, and it's got to change. So we'll see. We're going to push, and workers want justice. We'll keep fighting for that."

He added that EV plans haven't played out as expected and were too aggressive: "Whatever the powertrain is, we're going to be there. We want that work. We're not going to run from technology advances. We have to embrace it and figure out how we make it work for working-class people, not just for business or just for the rich."

BOSK spokesperson Mallory Cooke said the company denies allegations that it's violated labor laws. The UAW has filed four unfair labor practice complaints alleging the company illegally removed union flyers, threatened to close in the event of unionization and terminated employees for organizing efforts. The complaints remain under investigation by the NLRB.

"BlueOval SK has not, and will not, violate any labor laws," Cooke said in an email. "Mutual respect is a critical part of our culture. This is true regardless of how a team member feels about the union. Throughout the UAW’s sales campaign, we have repeatedly assured our team members that BlueOval SK will never reward or penalize any person or this plant based on support or opposition to the UAW."

The company, she said, is asking for the opportunity to continue to listen directly to employees: "Our team members have endured months of union sales tactics and slanders against their exciting jobs and proud accomplishments. They are ready for their voices to be heard."

Added Assistant Plant Manager Ben Gassman in a statement: "Our team members are determined to produce best-in-class batteries. The UAW will only hold our team back.”

What workers say

Building batteries for EVs was what attracted Rob Collett, 45, of Louisville, to leave the union job he'd held for almost five years at GE Appliance 10 minutes from his house to join in May 2024 as an operator at BOSK, which he described as an hour-and-a-half commute.

"It's the future," he said, explaining how he oversees machines and programs monitoring the formation process of the batteries that carries potential fire risks. "It’s the newest kind of manufacturing in all of the states around us. Everybody wanted to be a part of it."

But the heritage and pride of being an IUE-CWA union member at GE alongside his brother, a Teamster, and his grandfather, an elevator worker, stuck with him.

Then last year, Collett said he tripped over scaffolding while the BOSK plant, which began production last week, was still under construction. Collett said he fractured his hip, was taken to the hospital without his personal belongings like his cellphone, and left there without a notice to his emergency contact. He said he had to hire a worker's compensation lawyer to get a response from the company as he spent seven months rehabilitating.

"They never trained us how to work on a construction site," said Collett, who said he returned to work at the end of January. "It left a bad taste in my mouth. It made my union activity tenfold what it would’ve been. We have to protect ourselves."

By voting yes in the NLRB election, he hopes UAW representation will give him and his colleagues a greater voice in the workplace.

So does Tyler Conner, 27, of Elizabethtown, who started at BOSK at the end of June after leaving a nonunion job at Gordon Food Service. He expressed hope UAW representation will help to address frustrations he's had with what he describes as a lack of structure in his training and sudden benefit changes, such as those around paid time off.

"We're tried of policy changes at BlueOval saying one thing and doing the complete opposite," Conner said. "I feel we have no say."

Cooke said the company cannot speak on specifics pertaining to employees in these kinds of situations, but said safety is at the foundation of BOSK. She added the company offers some of the best health-care coverage in the region.

"Our team is provided safety training, enforces proper PPE use, and offers different channels to address safety matters," Cooke said. "Anyone who follows the proper safety protocols we have in place will be safe."

The Detroit News reached out on social media and by phone to multiple BOSK workers who've publicly expressed disagreement with the UAW, but didn't receive a response.

Organizing battery plants and the South

Ford stood apart in the 2023 UAW contract negotiations from its crosstown rivals, General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV, when the record deal achieved after a 41-day strike didn't promise a card-check system to organize workers at plants operated by BlueOval SK.

Workers at Ultium Cells LLC near Lordstown, Ohio, had already elected to join the UAW, and GM agreed it would lease workers to that joint venture with Korean battery partner LG Energy Solution to include them under its master agreement. Workers at Ultium's Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant followed by joining the union through a card-check system, and a majority of employees at Kokomo, Indiana's StarPlus Energy battery plant, the joint venture between Stellantis and Korean partner Samsung SDI, signed authorization cards in May.

Although BOSK wasn't included in the talks, the company, prior to the end of the UAW's strike, announced it was raising wages for maintenance technicians and associate maintenance technicians.

Materials from the UAW highlight BOSK's new-hire production operators' pay at $21 per hour for a 90-day probation period, after which it increases to $23.50. At Ultium, the starting wage is $27.72 per hour, and workers reach a top rate within three years of their start date, according to the union.

BlueOval SK reevaluates compensation every six months, Cooke said, and employees earned an across-the-board pay increase, four bonuses and progressive pay raises before producing a single battery. The company, she added, hasn't put limits on what employees can earn in the future, and it will increase compensation packages as needed "to remain the employer of choice in our area and protect the business."

Following the 2023 Detroit Three strike, the UAW launched a noisy campaign to organize southern automotive facilities in an attempt to keep up momentum and attention from the strike. In February 2024, it highlighted a $40 million organizing commitment to those efforts.

Its first battle was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Volkswagen AG workers overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW in April 2024 after attempts years earlier had failed. More than a year after the victory, however, the parties haven't presented a tentative agreement to members.

A February update from VW described 90% of the union's demands being resolved, including double-digit wage increases, lower health-care costs, cost-of-living adjustments, a ratification bonus and other gains.

Afterward, the UAW set its eyes on Mercedes-Benz Group AG in Alabama. In May 2024, however, 56% of participating workers there voted against organizing. Since then, the union has been quieter about its southern automotive organizing efforts, and UAW leaders have pointed to BOSK as their big focus.

"In some ways, it would be stunning if they lost," said Marc Robinson, principal of consultancy MSR Strategy and a former GM internal consultant who was involved in labor negotiations. "It will continue the trend of the union being able to win at the Detroit Three, and that being a joint venture doesn’t insulate you from being unionized, which the 2023 contract negotiation made pretty clear."

©2025 www.detroitnews.com. Visit at detroitnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.