By Nora Eckert
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) -The United Auto Employees are relying on scoring a seismic victory at Volkswagen (ETR:)’s Tennessee plant as unionization votes are tallied on Friday – one which opens up the anti-union U.S. South to organized labor.
A win would make the Chattanooga manufacturing facility the primary auto plant within the South to unionize by way of election because the Forties and the primary foreign-owned auto plant within the South to take action.
It might even be an enormous shot within the arm for UAW President Shawn Fain’s marketing campaign to unionize vegetation owned by greater than a dozen automakers throughout the U.S., together with Tesla (NASDAQ:). Fain and his staff have dedicated to spending $40 million by way of 2026 on the trouble.
Federal officers from the Nationwide Labor Relations Board on Friday night will begin the counting of ballots after three days of voting ends, with outcomes anticipated round 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT on Saturday).
“Everybody else is watching,” stated Isaac Meadows, a employee on the VW plant, who stated he voted in assist of the union. “This is going to change the labor landscape across the country.”
Though the UAW narrowly misplaced votes on the identical plant in 2014 and 2019, this 12 months’s vote has been preceded by surging public assist for unions and profitable contract negotiations final 12 months with the Massive Three automakers.
The UAW has stated it units votes in movement as soon as 70% of eligible staff at a plant – of which there are roughly 4,300 at VW’s Tennessee manufacturing facility – have signed playing cards supporting unionization.
Whereas success for the UAW is extensively anticipated to bolster unionizing momentum at different factories, anti-union sentiment is entrenched in lots of components of the U.S. South. Earlier this week, Republican governors in six southern states together with Tennessee spoke out in opposition to the union drive.
“We’re going through an unusual, even unprecedented period when it comes to unions more generally and VW is at the epicenter of that right now,” stated Harley Shaiken, labor professor on the College of California, Berkeley.
During the last a number of months, a bunch of volunteer staff on the plant, which produces the electrical ID.4 SUV and different autos, held organizing conferences to drum up assist, with occasional steering and help from Detroit’s UAW officers.
Among the plant’s staff have countered that becoming a member of the UAW might weaken staff’ job safety sooner or later.
Employees on either side agree that the plant’s campus has been quiet as ballots have been solid, in distinction to earlier years when scores of union supporters and opponents – each staff and members of the broader neighborhood – lined the driveway.
On Friday afternoon, staff on the plant stated these supporting the union wore crimson T-shirts saying “Stand Up, UAW” whereas these in opposition to donned white ones emblazoned “Still no UAW,” however either side eliminated the shirts earlier than getting into the plant as a result of firm guidelines. The employees stated folks within the plant are excited and nervous because the voting nears its finish.
In a 12-page pamphlet created by the UAW, the union laid out its argument for the way the employees would profit.
“Volkswagen made $75 billion in profit in the past three years,” Fain stated within the handout. “They can afford to pay you your fair share in wages, benefits and union protections.”
“How do I know? Because every single Volkswagen autoworker in the world is a union member … except here in Chattanooga,” he added.
VW has stated it has taken a impartial place on the vote at its solely non-union manufacturing facility globally. The UAW has beforehand represented VW staff at a Pennsylvania plant that constructed Rabbit automobiles earlier than it closed in 1988.
For many years, the union has struck out at southern auto vegetation. Along with two slender losses at VW beforehand, it sustained three extra important misses at southern factories owned by Nissan (OTC:), the final in 2017 in Mississippi.
The broader labor motion has since gone by way of considerably of a renaissance, with a file variety of staff throughout varied industries occurring strike final 12 months.
Final autumn U.S. President Joe Biden walked picket strains exterior Detroit, the place the union scored double-digit share raises in addition to cost-of-living will increase from Basic Motors (NYSE:), Ford Motor (NYSE:) and Stellantis (NYSE:). That sparked a wave of wage hikes by nonunion automakers that some analysts stated have been designed to maintain out unions.
A Mercedes plant in Alabama, at which a majority of staff have signed playing cards indicating they assist unionization, would be the subsequent facility to carry a UAW election, the week of Might 13.
