Volkswagen workers overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW, giving the union a landslide victory

Volkswagen workers overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW, giving the union a landslide victory

Hourly workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers late Friday, a major breakthrough in the union’s efforts to organize workers at plants across the country.

Shortly after 11 p.m. ET on Friday, the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that oversees such votes, announced that 73% of the 3,600 workers at the plant who cast ballots had voted in favor of joining the union. There was an 84% turnout among eligible voters.

“This election is huge,” Kelcey Smith, a paint worker at Volkswagen, said in a UAW statement. “This is the time; this is the place. Southern workers are ready to rise up and win a better life.”

There are about 150,000 workers in non-union auto plants in the United States today, about the same number as in the American plants of the three unionized automakers – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. If unions can win the right to represent workers across a wide swath of nonunion auto plants, it could increase their leverage in future contract negotiations.

A UAW victory could also provide a high-profile focus for unions in Southern states, which have far lower levels of union representation among workers than in industrial Northern states. Most nonunion auto plants are spread throughout the south.

The union has announced efforts to represent workers at not only Volkswagen, but also nine other foreign automakers with American plants – BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota and Volvo. It has filed to hold another election at the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, outside Tuscaloosa. The vote is set for next month and ends on May 17.

It also seeks to represent workers at three American automakers that make electric vehicles – Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. But it has yet to file to hold a vote at American EV makers or at the American plants of the eight foreign automakers besides Volkswagen and Mercedes.

Unlike many employers who campaigned against union membership when faced with organizing efforts, Volkswagen remained neutral in this campaign. His statement once the vote was announced was even, stating only the result of the vote and that “We will await the certification of the result by the NLRB. Volkswagen thanks Chattanooga employees for voting in this election.”

The certification is expected to come within five days if Volkswagen does not file an objection to the vote, according to the NLRB. The agency said the company is expected to begin negotiating in good faith with the union at that time.

One reason the company is more neutral than most employers facing union votes is the strength of unions in its home country of Germany. The main union for its factories there has a seat on the company’s board.

Auto strikes and contracts help win votes
The union’s organizing efforts follow a six-week strike against three unionized automakers last fall, which won record pay raises for UAW members at all three companies. They received an immediate increase of at least 11% and a salary increase of more than 30% for the life of the contract, which runs until April 2028.

Most non-union automakers, including Volkswagen, gave their workers the same pay raises after the UAW contract. But workers at non-union factories typically earn less than their counterparts at unionized automakers.

The average worker at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant makes about $60,000 a year before bonuses and benefits, according to the company. Production workers working under recent UAW contracts now earn about $36 an hour, or about $75,000 a year before overtime, bonuses and benefits.

Volkswagen once had an American factory where workers were represented by the UAW, in Pennsylvania. But the plant was closed in 1988, in the face of weak American sales by Volkswagen. And the UAW has had little success winning the right to represent non-union auto workers since then, until Friday’s vote.

But the union’s efforts have been opposed by a coalition of six southern Republican governors who have non-union auto plants in their states.

The six, including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, signed a letter this week arguing that non-union jobs would be at risk if the union wins Friday’s vote.

” The reality is that companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunities. We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good paying jobs to our state,” the letter said. “Union will certainly put our state jobs in jeopardy.”

But the vote represents a success by national unions, which won pay raises of 10% or more for nearly a million union members last year, according to an analysis by CNN.

Strikes are at their highest level in a decade in 2023, and organizing activity is also increasing.

Friday’s vote was hailed by the AFL-CIO, the country’s main union federation.

“This victory sends a powerful message to corporate interests everywhere: Workers will no longer tolerate exploitation and mistreatment,” the AFL-CIO statement said. “Whether it’s an auto worker in Tennessee, a film crew in Hollywood, a hotel worker in Las Vegas or a barista at a local coffee shop, when working people stand together in solidarity, we have the power to make meaningful change and bring about a brighter future for all. “