Sandie Yarborough on the BlueOval SK Shutdown — A Hardin County Story

Key Takeaways

• Sandie Yarborough, a Hardin County resident and former BlueOval SK worker, was featured in a New York Times article on the plant shutdown published the day before the episode
• BlueOval SK — a Ford and SK On joint venture on 1,500 acres in Hardin County — shut down roughly four months after the first batteries rolled off the line, ending about 1,600 jobs
• Workers learned of the shutdown in December through a short video message from the CEO; Sandie says she was never able to return to the plant and had personal items mailed to her
• Sandie now commutes well over an hour to a data center construction job in Indiana, staying at an Airbnb during the week, after a 20-minute drive to the plant
• She is pursuing an electrician apprenticeship and has started a wellness tea business, and encouraged others who were let go to "make a job" if they can't find one

Summary

The centerpiece of S2026E08 was a conversation Phil Taul described as Hardin County "representing on the national stage." Sandie Yarborough, a local resident and former worker at the BlueOval SK battery plant, was featured in a New York Times article on the shutdown — and she sat down with the crew to tell that story herself.

Sandie walked through the whole arc: the excitement of a fresh, well-paying startup job; the energy on the factory floor; the workers' vote to join the UAW; and then the December video announcement that the plant was closing, just months after production began. With empathy and patience, Phil let her tell it at her own pace — including the hard parts of the job search and the long commute that replaced her short one. Throughout, Sandie kept returning to a message of resilience: figure out what's next, build a career, and "if you can't find a job, you've got to make a job."

Watch this segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPO4_grH9U&t=1073s Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPO4_grH9U

Full Article

Phil set the tone carefully before bringing Sandie in. "We have a very special guest joining us today — someone who is representing Hardin County on the national stage," he said. The day before, the New York Times had published an article about the BlueOval SK battery plant shutdown and its impact on the community, and Sandie was one of the people featured in it.

For context, Phil laid out the backstory plainly: BlueOval SK, a joint venture between Ford and SK On, built a battery factory on 1,500 acres in Hardin County — one of the largest manufacturing investments in Kentucky history. Last September, just four months after the first batteries rolled off the line, the plant was shut down and around 1,600 workers lost their jobs right before Christmas. Sandie was one of them.

A startup full of hope

Sandie has lived in Hardin County for nearly ten years, moving from North Carolina to be near her best friend. "I love Hardin County. It's like my favorite place to live," she said. When she landed the BlueOval SK job, it felt like the start of something. "It was an opportunity for a startup, something new and fresh and exciting," she said. "Everybody had the vision for it. Nobody wanted it to fail." The pay, she noted, was "pretty great for Hardin County," and the culture was strong. When production finally launched after weeks of prep, "everybody was hyped, super hyped up."

She was candid about the harder parts, too. The workers' vote to join the UAW felt like progress, but it also brought friction. "From the union perspective, better — but it did definitely cause a lot of friction," she said, describing anti-union messaging and "drama" on the floor. Phil kept the conversation grounded and even-handed: "We live in America and everybody's free to vote any way they want," he offered, and Sandie agreed.

"I liken it to a divorce"

The shutdown came as a shock, even though some sensed something in the air. Word arrived in December through UKG — an app the company used to keep workers informed — in the form of a roughly five-minute video from the CEO, Michael Adams, explaining the reasons and the next steps. "I liken it to a divorce," Sandie said. "Everyone was sad, angry and confused. Some people kind of knew what was going to happen, but nobody expected us to be done."

What stung, she said, was the abruptness. Workers never set foot on the floor again; their belongings were mailed to them from their lockers. "As soon as we were done, that day, it was over with," she recalled. In the group chats she's part of, the reaction was raw — "a lot of angry people." She drew a generational line: younger workers were "onto the next job," but older coworkers who'd hoped this would be their final job, working five or ten more years to retirement, "got to start all over again."

Phil and the hosts shared their own memory of hearing the news. Scott described being out of town and getting a video sent to him: "I'm like, this is going to be bad. This is going to rock our world." Phil added that even people who didn't work there "had no clue."

Why it happened — from the factory floor

Asked what she thinks went wrong — with the national debate pointing variously at EV tax credits, business decisions, and politics — Sandie answered from her own vantage point. "I think we had a lot of things stacked against us," she said. "I don't think America is really ready for fully EV batteries." She also pointed to setbacks in the supply chain, including an aluminum plant fire that affected production. "A lot of it was an uphill battle," she said. Phil reflected on watching F-150 Lightning lease prices fall and still not sell, but circled back to keep the focus where it belonged: "None of that has anything to do with you guys. It's just a sad story. I'm sorry that you went through that."

Life after the plant

The transition has been hard. Sandie is now doing construction on a data center in Indiana — the same kind of facility Ford has said it may one day make batteries for — staying at an Airbnb during the week and facing a commute of about an hour and a half home, compared to her old 20-minute drive. She corrected the record gently but firmly on one point of language: she doesn't say she was laid off. "I was terminated. Terminated, fired," she said. "I don't want to make it sound better."

Quoting her own words to the Times, Phil asked what "it's a struggle now trying to find something that's comparable" means day to day. A January job fair held just for BlueOval workers had "decent jobs, but not comparable jobs," Sandie said — many paying under $20 an hour, and some requiring drives to Bowling Green that workers couldn't make. She's thankful to have found something comparable, but the long commute is the cost.

Out of that hardship, she's building forward. She's applied to become an electrician — "a whole long process" — and in the meantime works construction, which she loves. She also mentioned Canadian Solar, a startup in Jeffersonville hiring locally, with a manufacturing training program that sends new hires to China for three months. And she's started her own wellness tea venture, focused on holistic, made-from-scratch teas. "I feel like God gave us all the tools that we need to be healthy," she said, describing a "wellness on the go" idea for people who want to care for themselves "from the inside out." Phil promised to help share the details on HardinLocal.com once she has a page up.

Looking ahead

On Ford's stated plan to reopen the factory to make large batteries for data centers and utilities — about 2,100 jobs, with laid-off workers able to apply but not guaranteed a spot — Sandie was direct. "I think they should take us all back," she said. "We already know how the building's laid out, how it works. You don't have a workforce — you can take us." Phil agreed the existing local workforce was an asset: "You had the workforce right here."

Asked how the community feels about everything it invested — roughly $250 million in infrastructure, a training facility at ECTC, tax breaks, even a sister-city relationship with South Korea — Sandie's answer was one word, repeated softly: "Disappointed."

But she ended on encouragement, not anger. Speaking to anyone watching who's been let go and is trying to figure out what's next, she said: "Take this time to figure yourself out, so that you don't have a job — you have a career. Something long lasting that will propel you into your future." Phil thanked her for that spirit. "I really appreciate your positivity in a really bad situation," he said. "Appreciate your honesty."

Closing the segment, Phil pointed viewers to the full New York Times article, linked on HardinLocal.com, and spoke directly to those affected: "If you're a former BlueOval worker or know someone who is, drop a comment. We see you. This community sees you."