Ford workers vote to approve strike; talks continue

Expect strike authorizationFord Motor Co.'s workers at the Claycomo plant began a strike-authorization vote over workload and safety issues.

Jeff Wright, president of United Auto Workers Local 249, said the vote would conclude late Saturday night.

Wright emphasized that talks with plant management are continuing and that no deadline for a job action has been set.

"This is more of a formality that's part of the process," he said. "I'm confident we can get this resolved without a work stoppage."

Normally when the UAW conducts a strike-authorization vote over local plant issues, the workers overwhelmingly approve it. Wright said that is what's expected in this instance.

Ford said the strike-authorization vote was part of the process of resolving problems at local plants.

"We are working with the UAW to jointly resolve the issues at the Claycomo plant," said Marcey Evans, a company spokeswoman. "Senior Ford management and national Ford union leaders are working with the local officials to address the problems."

Production problems surfaced after Ford went to a three-shift operation on the Ford Escape/Mercury Mariner SUV line.

In addition to a staggered schedule for the third shift, union leaders said Ford is trying to eliminate jobs with the added shift, creating stressful and unsafe workloads for the rest of the workers.

Ford also produces the F-150 pickup at the plant, now on one shift after the second shift transferred to the SUV line.

Ford has about 4,000 production employees at the Claycomo factory.