VW Chattanooga employees vote to join the UAW Union
The vote to unionize passed with around 83 per cent participation from the staff, accounting for 3,613 votes. A significant majority voted ‘yes’, with around 2,628 votes cast in favour, representing about 73 per cent of the votes. The process will now be certified by the NLRB, as Volkswagen writes in its press release.
Volkswagen manufactures the ID.4 in Chattanooga, having started production in the summer of 2022. There is also a high-voltage battery laboratory, where cells and battery packs for electric models assembled in the USA will be developed and tested. There was also mention of another electric SUV model being produced at the Chattanooga facility early last year, however no further mention has been made. With the cooperation with Renault looking doubtful, as well as flagging EV sales, another shift in production strategy is not entirely unlikely, though.
The VW employees refer to the ‘big three’ unionization that took place recently as inspiration: “We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking,” said Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW’s proficiency room. “You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That’s why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there’s no way to stop them.”
At the end of last October, the UAW union ended its strikes against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis after six weeks, having reached preliminary agreements with all three car manufacturers. The main concessions were wage improvements. This round of unionization even received support from US president Joe Biden, likely playing a major role in helping bolster support in the US. At the time, the UAW had also outlined its next unionization targets: Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Tesla, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda, Rivian, Lucid and Volvo.
The case with Chattanooga is further interesting, because, unlike the ‘big three’, this marks the first instance of a foreign manufacturer’s employees in the southern USA unionizing, according to insideevs. Two attempts had been made in recent years, which both faltered.
UAW will likely use the success with the VW plant to take on the next German manufacturer, Mercedes. As UAW writes on its website: “5,000 workers at Mercedes-Benz in Vance, Ala., will have their vote to join the UAW on May 13 to 17. In the wake of the historic Stand Up Strike victory at the Big Three auto companies, over 10,000 non-union autoworkers have signed union cards in recent months.”
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