As workers at Kentucky’s Blue Oval/SK (BOSK) battery plants have filed for an election to unionize their workforce, a new report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KyPolicy) demonstrates that auto worker job quality has declined over decades in the commonwealth even as the industry has grown with the help of large public subsides. But the report also demonstrates how those trends could be reversed if BOSK workers are successful in their drive to join the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“A victory by BOSK workers would result in significant job improvements and could help pave the way for better jobs across Kentucky’s auto industry and even beyond,” said KyPolicy executive director Jason Bailey. “Because of the prominent and pervasive role of the auto industry in the state, increased unionization could create ripple effects in other workplaces. It is exactly the kind of worker-led action needed to put Kentucky’s economy on the high road of good quality jobs that allow families to thrive.”
Highlights from the report, entitled “Increased Unionization of Kentucky’s Auto Industry Would Help Return It to the High Road of Good Jobs,” include data showing that:
- The auto industry is a major employer in Kentucky that’s only getting bigger. The number of Kentucky jobs in automobile manufacturing grew by 136% between 1990 and 2023, and three out of four counties are now home to auto-related jobs. Growth is also on the horizon, with Kentucky’s electric vehicle investments totaling approximately $13.1 billion, with an expected 13,800 jobs to result.
- Job quality has declined for this formerly high-paying sector. The high quality, well-paying auto industry jobs won by organized labor in the 20th century are no longer the standard. For example, until the recent UAW contract victory, inflation-adjusted median wages in the auto industry in Kentucky had fallen 13% over the last decade in Kentucky, a decline of $9,321 annually.
- Kentucky’s auto industry benefits greatly from public subsidies.Between state and federal incentives, Kentucky’s auto industry is benefiting from billions in public subsidies, as companies are achieving record profits and CEO pay is rising rapidly. With so much public money used to subsidize the auto industry, it is reasonable to expect that the jobs the sector produces should set the standard for quality.
- Unionization is starting to turn the job quality problem around. After the UAW’s major victory with the Big 3 automakers in 2023, BOSK and Kentucky’s Toyota plant, both of which are non-union, awarded their workers substantial raises. That move illustrates how unionization has a positive economic impact beyond the workers directly involved. If the workers at BOSK and Toyota were to join UAW, gains will be even larger and so could the resulting ripple effects.
Read the full KyPolicy report here.
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