On the production floor of the massive BlueOval SK electric vehicle battery facility, Halee Hadfield remembers the moment her coworkers were instructed to strip off their cleanroom suits and handle what they suspected was G-8 powder —a toxic substance with known health risks— in their street clothes. All the while, she thought one thing: Is this safe? 

More than a year into her job as a quality operator, it’s a question the 26-year-old hasn’t stopped asking.

Under Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, manufacturers must provide safety data sheets outlining the hazards of chemicals in use and the steps workers should take to protect against them. Hadfield says management at the Kentucky plant, a venture between Ford and its South Korean partner SK On, has left her in the dark about the dangers she’s routinely exposed to at work. 

What questions Hadfield has tried to answer through her own research only deepens her concerns. 

“Some of these chemicals have long-term health effects,” said Hadfield. “We should all be able to go to work and return home in the same condition every day. We deserve that.”

Neither Ford Motor Company nor SK On responded to requests for comment on its safety protocols. 

From Georgia to Ohio, new EV battery plants are supercharging small-town economies in the South and Midwest — spurring investment and bringing tens of thousands of new jobs. But the clean energy push has also sparked a growing chorus of complaints from EV workers who say safeguards are lacking.

“That’s something I hear from EV workers everywhere: the industry’s health and safety protections haven’t been worked out,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University. “They feel they are not being heard and they’re angry.”  

Early warning signs of a shaky safety culture in EV battery manufacturing are starting to emerge. In 2024, OSHA issued 47 citations for safety violations in the battery manufacturing sector, surpassing the 44 violations from 2023 and marking a staggering 147% increase from 2022. 

Companies like Ultium Cells and SK On have led the current upswings. In 2023, SK Battery America, the U.S. arm of SK On, faced multiple violations at its Commerce, Georgia plant, from exposing workers to toxic fumes during lithium battery fires to failing to provide proper safety training.

How strong is Kentucky OSHA’s Bite?

Labor experts say Kentucky law stacks the deck against workers trying to enforce their rights. Under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, employees can’t take their employer to court over workplace injuries or safety violations. Instead, they’re limited to workers’ comp benefits—covering medical bills and part of their lost wages. 

Workers who suspect safety lapses can file an OSHA report, but it leaves them heavily reliant on the government agency to step up. On paper, Kentucky’s state-run OSHA — operating under the Education and Labor Cabinet’s Department of Workplace Standards — has the presumptive authority to conduct inspections, issue penalties, and take legal action against manufacturers skirting safety guidelines. But in practice, the regulatory watchdog operates with a short leash, argues Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

Compared to its federal counterpart, Kentucky OSHA runs on a leaner budget with far fewer inspectors. The state has just 22 OSHA inspectors for its roughly 1.9 million workers—that’s one inspector for every 87,293 employees, according to a 2024 report by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. “Kentucky has weak OSHA enforcement—one of the weakest in the country,” she said. 

To meet AFL-CIO recommendations, the state would need nearly nine times that amount. Put another way, as it stands, it would take inspectors 158 years to visit every workplace in the state just once. 

Nevertheless, Kentucky OSHA has flexed some muscle, at least according to enforcement records. Three inspections at the BlueOval SK facility were conducted between August and December 2024, driven by health and safety complaints. But only one case remains open, and it’s unclear whether these inspections are connected to the mold problem that sickened construction workers back in February or if they’re tied to ongoing safety concerns at the site. Moldy crates from Korea, filled with equipment, caused headaches and respiratory issues for several workers — none of whom were on the BlueOval payroll.

A spokesperson for the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time.

BlueOval workers take safety into their own hands

Bill Wilmoth, 52, a formation operator at BlueOval, is not waiting for OSHA to get ahead of these problems. Like several workers at the plant, he backs unionization as the most effective way to hold management accountable.

“From a regulatory perspective, it’s the Wild West,” he said. “If we’re an ignorant workforce and don’t know how to react properly, there can be some dangerous consequences. It’s driving me crazy that we are not taking this more seriously.”

Wilmoth says that if they succeed in unionizing with the United Auto Workers, their top priority is negotiating enforceable safety clauses, comprehensive training programs, and safety committees into their contract. In January, his coworkers took a major step toward that goal by filing for a union election.

Mallory Cooke, a spokesperson for BlueOval SK, said the decision to unionize is “premature.”

“Most of the team who will work at BlueOval SK Battery Park have not yet been hired. They, too, deserve to have their voices heard. And none of our team members have had the opportunity to see how our plant will operate since we have not yet begun production,” said Cooke. “The UAW is trying to rush BlueOval SK into unionization before our full workforce has the opportunity to make a truly free and informed choice.”

The UAW, representing around 400,000 workers, has already locked up victories at EV plants in Ohio and Tennessee —  and is now focused on riding that momentum in Kentucky — committing millions to expand its ranks in traditionally right-to-work states.

Meanwhile, worker safety is escalating as a point of contention between Republican lawmakers, who passed a bill in March to roll back OSHA regulations, and pro-union Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who vetoed it. While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle embrace the job growth from the EV boom, differing views on worker safety rights could threaten to open a new rift.

But for Hadfield, the issue isn’t political — it’s about securing stronger protections for workers in an industry with significant safety dangers. “This is such a new industry, and the risks of producing lithium-ion batteries in this environment are still largely unknown, and employees are not being told about the risks.”