UAW President Shawn Fain called for a surprise strike of an estimated 9,000 workers late Wednesday with no warning at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville, the Detroit Free Press confirmed.

Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, told the Free Press at 6:10 p.m. he had been called into a meeting and was preparing to walk out the workers shortly. The work shift began at 6 p.m., he said.

“We’re meeting right now as we speak," he said. "We’re being chosen to be the next arm of leverage in an international strike. We’re being called on by our leadership. It’s time to stand up and do our duty.”

Dunn told the Free Press his 9,000 or so UAW members have long prepared for this moment and are ready to do what’s required to help the strike succeed.

Thousands of workers left their jobs at 6:30 p.m., after union officials went around the plant at 6:25 p.m., shut off the line and told workers to walk out peacefully, a source inside the plant confirmed to the Free Press.

Kentucky Truck builds the Ford F-Series Super Duty, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator. Super Duty is among the most profitable products the Dearborn automaker sells.

The site now striking is Ford’s largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world. The vehicles built there generate $25 billion a year in revenue, Ford said Wednesday in its news release.

A breaking alert on the site formerly known as Twitter was sent by the UAW at 5:44 p.m. and had 16 views, 4 likes and 1 repost before being deleted. It said: “Breaking: The 8,700 UAW members at Ford’s iconic and extremely profitable Kentucky Truck Plant have joined the Stand Up Strike after Ford refuses to make further movement in bargaining. Workers are walking off the job right now. STAND UP!”

Then, at 6:30 p.m., the UAW re-posted it’s earlier message announcing the strike.

The UAW issued a news release at 6:35 p.m. that said: "In an unannounced move, 8,700 UAW members walked off the job today at 6:30 p.m. ET, shutting down Ford Motor Company’s iconic and extremely profitable Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. The strike was called after Ford refused to make further movement in bargaining.

“The surprise move marks a new phase in the UAW’s Stand Up Strike,” the UAW release said. “Previous expansions of the strike occurred at a deadline set in advance by the union. The move comes one day before the four-week mark since contracts expired at Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.” The exterior of the Stamping Facility, part of the Ford Kentucky Truck Assembly Plant in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 24, 2023.

Fain said in a statement late Wednesday: "We have been crystal clear, and we have waited long enough, but Ford has not gotten the message. It’s time for a fair contract at Ford and the rest of the Big Three. If they can’t understand that after four weeks, the 8,700 workers shutting down this extremely profitable plant will help them understand it.”

In response to the UAW’s strike move, the Dearborn automaker issued a statement calling the union’s decision to target the profitable plant "grossly irresponsible but unsurprising given the union leadership’s stated strategy of keeping the Detroit 3 wounded for months through ‘reputational damage’ and ‘industrial chaos.’"Ford said it "made an outstanding offer that would make a “meaningful positive difference in the quality of life for our 57,000 UAW-represented workers, who are already among the best compensated hourly manufacturing workers anywhere in the world.”

In addition to its offer on pay and benefits, Ford said it "has been bargaining in good faith this week on joint venture battery plants, which are slated to begin production in the coming years.“The UAW leadership’s decision to reject this record contract offer – which the UAW has publicly described as the best offer on the table – and strike Kentucky Truck Plant, carries serious consequences for our workforce, suppliers, dealers and commercial customers,” Ford said.

“In addition to affecting approximately 9,000 direct employees at the plant, this work stoppage will generate painful aftershocks – including putting at risk approximately a dozen additional Ford operations and many more supplier operations that together employ well over 100,000 people,” Ford said. “This decision by the UAW is all the more wrongheaded given that Ford is the only automaker to add UAW jobs since the Great Recession and assemble all of its full-size trucks in America.”

U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Democrat who represents Louisville, posted on the site formerly known as Twitter, “I stand with our @UAW brothers & sisters on strike. Local 862 is responsible for 54% of Ford’s North American profits, & their workers deserve a fair contract, good benefits & wages, & safe working conditions. Louisville is a union town & it’s going to stay that way.”