WASHINGTON — The United Auto Employees mentioned Monday that staff at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, meeting plant are looking for an election to unionize, establishing a vital take a look at for UAW President Shawn Fain’s unprecedented marketing campaign to develop the union’s attain to foreign-owned automakers within the southern United States.
The UAW mentioned a supermajority of eligible staff on the VW plant have signed union playing cards in about three months. The employees have filed a petition with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board looking for a vote to hitch the union. It will be the third time in ten years that the UAW has sought to symbolize VW Chattanooga staff.
For greater than twenty years, the UAW has tried and failed to arrange non-union U.S. auto meeting crops established by Asian and European automakers, largely in southern states with legal guidelines and political leaders which can be hostile to unions. The UAW has not organized staff at Tesla or different electrical automobile startups akin to Rivian.
Profitable a vote to arrange the VW plant could be a big milestone for the UAW in an election 12 months the place each U.S. President Joe Biden and his presumptive Republican rival Donald Trump are aggressively courting votes from UAW members in Michigan and different industrial swing states.
After profitable document new contracts with the Detroit Three automakers final fall, Fain launched a first-of-its-kind marketing campaign to arrange the whole nonunion auto meeting sector within the U.S., initiating simultaneous organizing efforts at non-union operations owned by Toyota, Mercedes, Hyundai and different automakers.
VW, which says about 4,100 staff on the plant that produces the Atlas and ID.4 are eligible to hitch a union, mentioned beforehand the corporate respects “our staff’ proper to resolve the query of union illustration. And we stay dedicated to offering correct data that helps inform them of their rights and selections.”
Two makes an attempt to arrange VW’s plant in Chattanooga narrowly failed. In 2019, VW staff on the plant rejected union illustration in an 833-776 vote. Earlier efforts to arrange Nissan Motor crops in Mississippi and Tennessee additionally failed by vast margins.
The UAW in November introduced campaigns at 13 nonunion automakers, together with at Tesla, Toyota Motor, Hyundai, Rivian, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Senators in January pressed the automakers to stay impartial throughout organizing.
Earlier this month, the UAW mentioned that greater than 30% of staff at a Toyota manufacturing unit in Missouri are looking for to hitch the union.
The UAW mentioned final month a majority of hourly staff at a Mercedes Benz Alabama manufacturing unit have signed union authorization playing cards.
VW mentioned in November it will hike pay for Tennessee manufacturing unit staff by 11%, becoming a member of a number of overseas automakers who’ve introduced important pay and different compensation enhancements in response to the UAW contract.