United Auto Workers on Wednesday shut down Ford's (F.N) biggest plant globally, halting production of lucrative pickup trucks with little warning, in a sharp escalation of the union's four-week targeted strike against the Detroit Three automakers, Reuters reported. The UAW said that 8,700 union members at Ford's Kentucky truck plant went on strike after the union said the No. 2 U.S. automaker refused to move further in contract bargaining. Automakers have more than doubled initial wage hike offers, agreed to raise wages along with inflation, and improved pay for temporary workers, but the union wants higher wages still, the abolishment of a two-tier wage system and the expansion of unions to battery plants at all three companies. UAW President Shawn Fain's decision to shut down assembly lines that build Ford Super Duty pickup trucks and Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition large SUVs is a blow to Ford that could quickly undermine the automaker's full-year profits.
