Battery Workers at BlueOval SK in Kentucky File for First Major Union Election in the South in 2025

GLENDALE, Ky. — A supermajority of workers at battery maker BlueOval SK filed a petition Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to form their union with the UAW. The election filing at BlueOval SK (BOSK), a new joint venture of Ford and SK On, is the first major filing in the South in 2025 and continues the movement of Southern autoworkers organizing with the UAW.

In a new video, BOSK workers talk about why they’re voting yes to form their union. The video can be accessed here and the media is invited to use the footage. More information about the campaign, including first-person statements from BOSK workers, is at: uaw.org/bosk.

“We’re forming our union so we can have a say in our safety and our working conditions,” said Halee Hadfield, a quality operator at BOSK. “The chemicals we’re working with can be extremely dangerous. If something goes wrong, a massive explosion can occur. With our union, we can speak up if we see there’s a problem and make sure we’re keeping ourselves and the whole community safe.”

The BOSK workers publicly launched their campaign to join the UAW in November once a supermajority of workers had signed union cards. The company has responded to the campaign by hiring anti-union consultants who are trying to block the workers from organizing.

“What we’re doing here can be transformative, but there are problems with management that we have to fix,” said Angela Conto, a production operator in formation at BOSK. “Instead of listening to our safety concerns, management has been ordering people to work without proper protective equipment. Now they’re trying to stop us from forming our union to win a strong voice for safety. But the strong supermajority of workers who’ve signed union cards show we’re going to fix what’s wrong at BOSK and make it the leading manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries in America.”

In December, the BOSK workers held a town hall in Elizabethtown, Ky., with UAW members from Ultium Cells in Lordstown, Ohio, which makes battery cells for GM’s electric vehicle fleet. Ultium opened as a nonunion plant in 2022, and workers there encountered many of the same problems the BOSK workers face now. An Ultium worker explained how they organized with the UAW and won a union contract with strong safety protections and life-changing raises and benefits.

“I have worked both union and nonunion jobs and have seen the power of a union firsthand,” said Andrew McLean, a logistics worker in formation at BOSK. “Right now, we don’t have a say at BOSK. With a union, we’ll be on a level playing field with management. That’s so important when you’re getting a new plant off the ground. The union allows us to give honest feedback without fear of retaliation.”

The BOSK workers are building on the victories at Ultium in Lordstown, and also at the new Ultium plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., where workers joined the UAW in September. The growing unionization movement among nonunion battery workers across the country, and especially in the South, builds off the success of the UAW’s Stand Up Strike at the Big Three and the victory by Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., who became the first Southern autoworkers outside the Big Three to win their union when they voted to join the UAW in April.