The union sees battery joint ventures as an end run around the master labor contract. Farley noted that only one plant — a planned battery facility in Michigan — is owned by Ford. The others are joint ventures with Asian battery partners. The same is true for GM, whose Ultium LLC plants are jointly owned with South Korea's LG Energy Solution. Since those joint ventures aren't wholly owned, they would have to win majority support from those workers, as they did in an election at an Ultium plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The newly targeted facilities are a Ford factory in Chicago that produces the Explorer sport-utility vehicle and a GM plant in Lansing, Michigan, that manufactures the Chevrolet Traverse, Fain said Friday. The union had also planned to strike at Stellantis, according to officials briefed on the matter, but changed course right before Fain's announcement Friday morning, which was delayed due to the negotiations.