Potential Ford LAP layoff: Workers should get unemployment benefits not UAW strike funds

Louisville workers at Ford's Kentucky Truck Plant through their union, the UAW, have joined the historic strike against the Detroit Big Three automakers. Labor laws are tilted against workers. They prohibit workers from striking across industries, permit employers to replace workers who strike for economic reasons and also allow employers to down the plant to build one in another country. Because of this, workers generally stand to lose a lot when they strike.

Workers in the U.S. have been through a lot in recent years. They've endured health risks at work during a pandemic, seen their wages plummet relative to inflation and observed the ever increasing wealth inequality. UAW workers have decided to take a stand, not only for themselves, but also for those in the communities in which they work. The Stand Up Strike is a savvy move on the UAW’s part, and the workers who are on strike have exhibited crucially high levels of solidarity.

UAW Strikes Are Working. Ford Kentucky Truck Plant picket line could shape the outcome

Ford and the UAW are likely continuing to move closer together, and the strike will bring long-term benefits to Kentucky workers by raising industry wages not only for union members but for all those in the automotive industry. Kentucky doesn’t pay striking workers unemployment benefits, so the workers at Kentucky Truck Plant will rely on the UAW strike fund, and make due with less pay than if they continued working. Kentucky should change the law to pay strikers unemployment benefits.  Their sacrifice benefits us all.

Kentucky provides unemployment for both locked-out and laid off workers

Even with the law as is though, if Louisville Assembly Plant workers are laid off by Ford, they can collect unemployment. Even if Ford doesn’t automatically file for them, as they normally would when laying off their workers, the workers themselves can file for unemployment.

The governing statute in Kentucky provides unemployment for both locked-out and laid off workers.  If an employee strikes, benefits are not paid. Also, benefits are not paid if an employee leaves their employment because “a bona fide labor dispute is in active progress at the plant where they are employed.”

A labor dispute at the LAP did not cause the workers to leave their jobs. It was an active dispute at another establishment, KTP, that caused the layoffs. Faithfully continuing work under an expired contract is not an active labor dispute at the particular establishment. Moreover, if it is, then the dispute has been active for longer than the requisite seven days. Unless Ford notified the Office of Unemployment Insurance in writing by September 21, seven days after September 14, the day the contract expired and the strike immediately followed, benefits should be paid.

Biden proved the strike is also political

The situation is political, as exhibited by President Biden’s historic appearance on the picket line in Michigan, and it is likely that Ford along with Gov. Beshear's administration will resolve this without need for a protracted dispute over benefits.

In 2022, Kentucky saw legislative changes to unemployment benefits. These are certainly not good for workers because they cut off benefits after a shorter time period and because they require those unemployed to seek an overwhelming number of new positions. However, the statute is clear about layoffs. Employees who are laid off do not have to search for other employment. Doing so would sever their existing employment relationship. Therefore if Ford decides to lay off workers at LAP when KTP cannot supply the parts needed to their job, the job search requirement will not apply.

Does the UAW strike concern you? Submit a letter to the editor.

Even if the Office of Unemployment Insurance denied LAP workers unemployment, unfairly classifying them as striking when they are willing to work, the UAW has a strike fund.  Either way, LAP workers are sacrificing their short-term wages. The good news is that the short term hit to the workers pocketbooks and the local economy will result in a long-term lifting of all boats due to higher wages, better working conditions and more successful unionization campaigns.

Ariana Levinson is a Professor of Law at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.  Her scholarship and teaching focus is on Labor and Employment Law. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville laid off Ford workers get unemployment not UAW strike fund