May 7, 2025 

Tomorrow, at its 2025 AGM, Ford Motor Company faces a defining moment.  The Company has an opportunity and an obligation to address mounting concerns of investors, workers, and frontline communities related to its joint venture, BlueOval SK. The multi-billion-dollar joint venture is constructing three battery plants – two in Kentucky, one in Tennessee – that are expected to collectively employ around 11,000 workers and will be among the largest factory outlays in the world. Credible allegations around anti-union behavior and exclusion of majority-Black local communities from decision-making processes that affect their land, livelihoods, and future are serious and must be effectively addressed by Ford.

Investor Advocates for Social Justice (IASJ), on behalf of faith-based investors, has engaged Ford for the past two decades on issues of greenhouse gas emissions reduction, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and living wage. Through our due diligence, we became aware of violations of freedom of association and collective bargaining, as well as potential for the exacerbation of racial inequities that are linked to Ford’s joint venture, BlueOval SK. 

IASJ supported Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace (CSJP) in filing a shareholder proposal in November 2024, asking Ford to adopt and disclose a Noninterference Policy committing to uphold the human rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in its operations and its joint ventures. Despite investor concerns, Ford was successful in excluding the shareholder proposal from its proxy statement. 

“We filed a shareholder proposal at Ford because we have real and grave concerns about potential human rights violations taking place in and around BlueOval SK’s plants. When we brought these issues to Ford’s attention, we were provided with no information. When we filed the shareholder proposal, Ford sought to keep it from reaching the public by challenging it before the SEC. When the SEC permitted Ford to exclude the proposal, we reached out to Ford again, but received no substantive response,” said Sister Susan Francois, from CSJP.  “This repeated lack of response from Ford to these shareholder concerns about real risks to the company and impacted communities calls into question for us the company’s commitment to being a good and responsible neighbor. We will continue to lift up the voices of impact stakeholders–communities and workers–and keep these issues front and center.”

While the proposal will not be going to a vote, underlying concerns related to workers’ and communities’ rights persist, and it is incumbent on Ford to meaningfully address them. 

Workers are Concerned

At the Kentucky BlueOval plant, workers have been trying to unionize, but have been met with anti-union resistance from the joint venture. 

“BlueOval SK as a company claims to have an ‘open door policy,’ but doesn’t enforce the expectation across the board with management. Many of us tried to reason with management over safety needs and expectations, to no avail. Instead, BOSK has aggressively union-busted: holding countless anti-union meetings, spreading misinformation, and even firing union activists. BOSK claims that we’re organizing solely for financial gain, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. We recently had a fire outside the plant, the cause of which is still unknown. Had the fire spread to its immediate right or left, the consequences could have been dire,” said Halee Hadfield, Quality Operator, BlueOval SK.

According to the UAW’s website, “Workers at BlueOval SK filed for a union election in January, naming health and safety as a top issue. Instead of respecting the workers’ choice, the Ford joint venture is delaying—and escalating its anti-union aggression.”

Communities are Concerned

In majority-Black communities near the site of BlueOval SK’s Tennessee battery plant, community members have been trying to negotiate a legally-binding Community Benefits Agreement with Ford, citing concerns over adverse environmental impacts, rising costs of living and housing, and reinforcing an already-existing racial economic divide in the region. The efforts to get Ford to come to the table are led by Blue Oval Good Neighbors, a coalition of majority-Black impacted West Tennesseans and allied organizations. 

“I feel disappointed because Ford is supposed to be a diverse company that considers people, that wants equity in communities, and is concerned about how communities are impacted by their incoming development, but it seems that Ford has put the community on the back burner and is only concerned about business as usual,” said Rachel Wilson, community member of Blue Oval Good Neighbors.

“We have thousands of rural West Tennesseans calling on Ford to come to the table to secure long-term investments through a Community Benefits Agreement, and yet Ford refuses to budge or answer our call,” said Elton Holmes, community member of Blue Oval Good Neighbors. “We are demanding long-term investment in our communities. Ford’s Good Neighbor plan invests less than 1% of the taxpayer dollars they’ve received into West Tennessee and provides no guarantees. We want guarantees, our communities deserve that.”

Hear from community in the following video: