Autoworkers at a Ford international joint venture electric-battery plant in Kentucky have filed for a union election, a key development in the storied United Auto Workers’ campaign to organize Southern auto factories and EV battery facilities.

The BlueOval SK plant, owned by a partnership of South Korea's SK On and Ford, is the latest battery battleground for the union.

The United Auto Workers union is petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election at a Kentucky battery plant run by a Ford Motor joint venture, the union said in a release Wednesday.

Workers at a Kentucky BlueOval SK Battery Park filed for an election to join the United Auto Workers union Tuesday, marking the new year’s first major union election petition filed in the South —and one that could foretell future union activity in Tennessee.