The United Auto Workers’ ambition to unionize as many car manufacturer facilities in the U.S. will make a major step on April 17-19 when workers at VW’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, vote on whether to join the union.
Last week the UAW said a supermajority of eligible employees at the plant had signed union cards and wanted to join. The election will be open to all full-time and regular part-time production and maintenance employees at the site.
This is not the first time employees at the Chattanooga factory have attempted to unionize. They have tried to do the same two times in the past decade. In 2019, 48.2% of eligible workers at the factory voted in favor of joining the UAW but that wasn’t enough. It appears employees are more eager to join the union this time after the UAW secured historic contracts with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis last year.
VW’s Chattanooga factory employs 4,000 staff and currently builds the Atlas and ID.4. It is the company’s only plant that doesn’t have official employee representation, according to AutoNews.
“We are voting yes for our union because we want Volkswagen to be successful,” a member of the factory’s logistics team, Victor Vaughn said earlier this month. “VW has partnered with unionized workforces around the world to make their plants safe and successful. That’s why we’re voting for a voice at Volkswagen here in Chattanooga.”
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The union has not said how many workers have signed union cards but added it wanted support from 70% of staff before petitioning the National Labor Relations Board for a vote. It appears to have hit that target.
This isn’t the only U.S. auto factory that could soon be unionized. In February, a majority of workers at the Mercedes-Benz Tuscaloosa assembly plant in Alabama also expressed their support for joining the UAW.
