UAW vote at Tennessee plant will check resurgent labor motion

Carmakers and labor leaders are carefully awaiting outcomes to be launched on Friday in a seismic union election that might supercharge organizing within the nation’s auto sector and show the power of a resurgent labor motion by a victory within the South, a area usually immune to unions.

As many as 4,300 staff at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, are voting on whether or not to hitch the United Auto Staff.

Staff started casting ballots this week in essentially the most important check for the UAW since a strike final fall towards the Massive 3 U.S. carmakers that delivered substantial good points and a burst of curiosity from staff at non-union corporations.

“Staff in America are fed up with being left behind and unions are the trail to dignity on and off the job,” UAW president Shawn Fain mentioned in February in a submit on X, after having met with staff on the Volkswagen facility.

The labor agreements on the Massive 3 final 12 months prompted some non-union opponents to supply pay will increase and different advantages, placing their staff in nearer alignment with UAW members. Honda, Nissan and Tesla are among the many firms that raised wages for U.S. staff after the UAW deal.

The breakthrough additionally triggered a wave of UAW organizing, the union says. Over 10,000 non-union auto staff have signed playing cards in help of the UAW in current months and organizing campaigns have damaged out at greater than two dozen amenities, the union mentioned in a press release final month.

The election on the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga presents a tough check, even because the union seems poised for progress. The UAW suffered slim defeats in two elections on the facility over the previous decade.

Governors of six southern states, together with Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee, issued a joint assertion this week criticizing the UAW and voicing normal opposition towards unions.

“As Governors, we’ve a duty to our constituents to talk up once we see particular pursuits trying to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we dwell by,” they wrote.

For its half, Volkswagen has remained publicly impartial towards the union drive. In a press release, the corporate informed ABC Information that it helps the union election course of.

“We respect our staff’ proper to a democratic course of and to find out who ought to signify their pursuits,” Volkswagen mentioned.

“We absolutely help an NLRB vote so each group member has an opportunity to a secret poll vote on this vital determination. Volkswagen is pleased with our working surroundings in Chattanooga that gives among the finest paying jobs within the space,” the corporate added

A union victory would assist bolster the UAW’s membership, which has dropped steadily from a peak of 1.5 million staff in 1970 to 370,000 final 12 months.

The chance for membership enlargement on the UAW, simply months after its high-profile strike towards the Massive 3, exemplifies a wider pattern within the U.S. labor motion.

Greater than 500,000 staff went out on strike nationwide in 2023, greater than doubling the determine recorded a 12 months earlier, in accordance with Cornell College’s College of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The uptick in exercise, nonetheless, didn’t translate into union membership good points. Solely 10% of U.S. staff belonged to unions final 12 months, little modified from the 12 months prior, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics information confirmed.

The election in Chattanooga will check whether or not the headline-grabbing labor strikes can translate right into a resurgence of union progress, mentioned Stephen Silvia, a professor at American College and the creator of “The UAW’s Southern Gamble.”

“Traditionally, unionization has proceeded in waves,” Silvia mentioned. “Is that this a wave? That’s what we’ll see.”