Workers Authorize Strike At Kentucky Corvette Plant If Contract Dispute Can’t Be Settled

General Motors’ Bowling Green, Kentucky, plant is the latest home to labor tensions. The plant, famous for making Corvettes, has workers who are unhappy with their local contract and who recently approved strike action, though they say they are still committed to negotiating a solution.

Tensions stem from concerns over working conditions and perks that members of UAW Local 2164 believe aren’t being addressed in a local contract proposed by management, reports Bowling Green Daily News.

Last week, 98 percent of the plant’s production workers and 97 percent of its skilled trades workers voted to reject an offer from plant management that failed to include many of the demands being made by union leadership.

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The workers are asking GM to commit to using UAW members for contracted tasks like 3D printing, maintenance work, and striping. It was also concerned with sanitation and health and safety standards.

Local 2164’s shop chairman, Jason Watson, says he understands the need for the plant to have some flexibility in its hiring but says he wants to ensure that this flexibility isn’t taken advantage of by management to hire too many non-union workers. And the union is preparing itself for the fight ahead. “Our membership has approved a strike authorization, but there is a process that must go through (UAW) Region 8 and the national union,” Watson said.

For now, union leadership is looking to track members’ concerns and will continue to meet management in order to make headway in negotiations. Plant management said it is also interested in working towards a compromise.

“We are disappointed that UAW Local 2164 voted down the local contract,” said the plant’s management in a statement. “We will continue to meet with the local union to understand the vote and will continue to negotiate. Our goal is to reach an agreement that benefits employees and positions our business to be competitive as we move forward.”

The tensions with Local 2164 aren’t unique, though. Issues could pop up for GM across the country as Watson says that many GM facilities are without a local agreement.