The Tennessee legislature just approved a $900 million package of incentives to help jump start Ford Motor Co.’s plans to build two major factories in the western part of the state outside Memphis, Tennessee.
The incentives approved by the legislature, which was called back into a special session to consider the package, includes improvements to the 3,600-acre site for the new plant. The assembly plant is first Ford has commissioned since the late 1960s. It’ll also be home a new battery plant for Ford’s growing fleet of electric vehicles.
Ford’s $5.5 billion Blue Oval City project is expected to produce the next generation battery-electric pickup trucks by 2025 and create 5,800 new jobs.
TVA pitches in
According to the Associated Press, in addition to the site itself, the state also has set aside roughly $138 million for infrastructure and demolition work at the site. Another $40 million will be used for a new technical college Tennessee Governor Bill Lee promised to build.
The state is also chipping in $200 million on road projects, the AP reported. Before landing the Ford project, Tennessee invested more than $174 million in the site outside Memphis.
The package of incentives for Blue Oval also will includes tax relief for the finished project and electric power from produced by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally owned, for-profit utility, which operates in seven Southern states.
Anxiety about union role rises during debate
The package of incentives has stirred up some anxiety among conservate legislators, concerned the Blue Oval could become a union shop given Ford’s long history of cooperation with the United Auto Workers. Indeed, UAW President Ray Curry was invited to Tennessee by Ford and introduced by Executive Chairman William Clay Ford Jr.
National Right To Work, a longtime foe of unions and organized labor, sent the Tennessee governor a letter saying the incentive package must include safeguards against what it describes as backroom deals at Blue Oval that could lead to the site becoming union territory.
“This must include ensuring that any decision by workers at the new facility regarding whether or not to affiliate with the United Autoworkers (UAW) union or other labor organization be made with the full protections of a secret ballot election, and without any backroom deal between Ford and union officials over the conditions of a unionization drive,” the Right To Work organization said in its letter to Lee.
UAW already has a foothold
However, Ford has already committed, in labor agreements and other communications, to the UAW it would remain neutral during any union organizing effort and recognize the results of a “card check,” which is recognized as way to get around an election supervised by the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.
Ford renewed its commitment during an exchange of letters earlier this year when UAW officials expressed concern about the loss of union jobs as Ford sped up its shift to electric vehicles.
In fact, Democrats in the Tennessee legislature appear to believe the jobs at Blue Oval will ultimately be union jobs in area with a large Black population.
“We need to think about the union jobs that will be created in rural Tennessee to lift people out of poverty,” said House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a Democrat from Memphis. “This was great, this was the first step in where we want to go … we look forward to the thriving economy that’s going to come as a result of (Ford) coming here.”
In addition to the investment from Ford and the State of Tennessee, the project is expected to generate more than 27,000 new jobs, both directly and indirectly, to support the site’s operations, contributing $3.5 billion each year to Tennessee’s statewide gross product.