Historic victory for the American automobile union: Employees of the German Volkswagen group in Tennessee voted by a large majority to be represented by the UAW (United Auto Workers), a first among foreign automobile factories in the Southern United States.
The Chattanooga plant’s 5,500 employees voted 73% to be represented by the UAW, according to results released Friday by Volkswagen.
“Volkswagen workers just made history!” the UAW said in a post on X.
A first for a non-American manufacturer.
Until now, the union had failed to gain a foothold in any non-U.S. automaker. They have settled mainly in southern states of the United States that are not very open to unions.
In a statement, VW, which is committed to a position of neutrality, indicated that the three-day vote, which began on Wednesday, “was carried out with a democratic, secret vote, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board” (NLRB). ), the federal agency responsible for labor law.
“Volkswagen thanks its Chattanooga workers for voting,” the manufacturer added.
The parties have five days to file their objections, according to the NLRB, which added: “the employer must now begin bargaining in good faith with the union.”
The vote constitutes a major victory for Shawn Fain, new president of the UAW since March 2023, and comes on the heels of progress made this fall by the “Big 3,” Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The UAW had obtained an average wage increase of 25% in four years, agreements ratified in November after six weeks of strike unprecedented in its duration.
Biden welcomes this vote
Following the “Big 3” agreements, the UAW launched an awareness campaign in November among 13 manufacturers, mainly located in the South, employing about 150,000 people in total.
After this first vote in Chattanooga, the next one is scheduled for May 13 to 17 at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance (Alabama) that employs 6,100 people.
The victory in Chattanooga gives an additional boost to the UAW, which also mentioned a factory of the Japanese manufacturer Toyota in Missouri and another of the South Korean Hyundai in Alabama among those affected by its campaign.
Running for reelection, President Joe Biden, who made a historic visit to a UAW picket line in Michigan in September 2023, welcomed the election outcome. For him, he demonstrates “once again that the middle class built America and that unions continue to build and expand the middle class for all workers.”
In previous elections, including two in Chattanooga, the UAW had failed to establish itself in the South. Still, the union must face pushback from local political leaders. An open letter from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, co-signed by five other governors in the region, all Republicans, accused him of endangering the region’s economy and jobs.
Among the signatories, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on Friday on CNBC that the governors wanted to protect the local model based on “excellent relationships between our employers and their employees,” accusing the UAW of wanting to “destroy” it.
“A lot of political interest”
Joe Biden denounced this open letter as an initiative based on “false” claims to “undermine the vote” at VW.
For Stephen Silvia, author of a book on the UAW’s southern bet, this election constitutes “a turning point” for unionism and raises the stakes for those planned in Alabama.
“The South has been based on a model of low wages and minimal expression of workers” and the latter “would like to change,” he explains. “There will be a lot more political interest, not only in Alabama (but also) in Washington.”
Source: BFM TV
