Nora Eckert
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – Workers at Volkswagen’s (ETR:) plant in Tennessee voted to join the United Auto Workers union, a seismic victory for the union as it expands beyond its Detroit base into the southern and western United States.
A majority of eligible workers voted in favor of the union, with the final vote count on Friday being 2,628 to 985, or 73% in favor of joining the UAW.
A victory would make the Chattanooga plant the first auto plant in the South to join a union through elections since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned auto plant in the South to do so.
The victory was a huge boost to UAW President Sean Fein’s campaign to unionize factories owned by more than a dozen automakers across the US, including Tesla (NASDAQ:). Fein and his team have committed to spending $40 million on the effort through 2026.
Jubilant workers, some in tears, raised their hands in victory and held up signs reading “Union Yes!” as the results were announced.
“I’m encouraged that we actually achieved what we set out to achieve,” said VW employee Lisa Elliott, hugging her co-workers. “Tell Mercedes they’re next,” she encouraged.
The Mercedes plant in Alabama, where a majority of workers signed cards indicating they support unionization, will be the next plant to hold a UAW election during the week of May 13.
Although the UAW narrowly lost votes at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, this year’s vote was preceded by growing public support for the unions and successful contract negotiations last year with the Big Three automakers.
“The margins are huge,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is a historic moment.”
VW took a neutral position in the vote at its only non-union plant in the world. The UAW previously represented VW workers at the Pennsylvania plant, which produced Rabbit cars until it closed in 1988.
For decades, the union has targeted Southern auto plants where anti-union sentiment has long been entrenched. Earlier this week, Republican governors in six Southern states, including Tennessee, opposed the union campaign.
In addition to two small losses at VW previously, the UAW has suffered three more major near misses at Nissan (OTC:)-owned plants in the south, most recently in 2017 in Mississippi.
But the broader labor movement has since experienced something of a renaissance, with record numbers of workers in a variety of industries going on strike last year.
Last fall, US President Joe Biden picketed outside Detroit, where the union had won double-digit interest rate hikes and cost-of-living increases from General Motors (NYSE:), Ford Motor (NYSE:) and Stellantis (NYSE:). . That prompted a wave of rate hikes from nonunion automakers that some analysts said were aimed at keeping unions out.
Biden rebuked Republican governors in a statement after the vote. “I will continue to support American workers and oppose Republican attempts to weaken the voice of workers,” said Biden, who is running for re-election this year.
In addition to the Mercedes plant, the UAW said more than 30% of Hyundai (OTC:) plant employees in Alabama and Missouri Toyota (NYSE:) Auto parts plants signed cards indicating their desire to join the UAW.
Union workers at the VW plant say they are campaigning for safer jobs, better work-life balance and better benefits.
“Now that it’s official, I can relax,” said Robert Crump, who worked for VW for 12 years and voted yes in all three union elections. “It’s a really good feeling.”