Workers at Volkswagen plant in Tennessee petition for union election

The United Auto Workers notched a win in its campaign to organize hundreds of thousands of nonunion autoworkers across the US.

The union said this week that workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election after a “supermajority” of workers at the plant signed union authorization cards.

“It is a major milestone and a historic moment. We’re on the cusp of a union election that could prove transformative,” Harley Shaiken, a labor expert and professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, told Tech Brew.

The move marks the first filing for a union election since the UAW launched its ambitious organizing campaign on the heels of winning record contracts with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis last year.

The UAW went public with its organizing drive at the VW plant in December. The union also has its sights set on BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo plants. It has committed $40 million to the effort and reported a few early successes.

“Today, we are one step closer to making a good job at Volkswagen into a great career,” Chattanooga worker Isaac Meadows said in a press release. “By winning our union and a real voice at Volkswagen, we can negotiate for more time with our families.”

In a statement, spokesperson Michael Lowder said that VW respects its “workers’ right to a democratic process and to determine who should represent their interests.”

“We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision,” he said.

According to VW, the average employee at the plant will earn at least $60,000 this year. The company raised wages 11% in November.

The Chattanooga plant, which employs more than 4,000 hourly workers, has long been a target of organizing efforts. The UAW lost previous elections there in 2014 and 2019 by very small margins amid fierce opposition from Republican elected officials, Shaiken said. This time around, conditions may be more favorable for the union.

“The gains that came off [the UAW’s strike of the Detroit automakers]…were stellar gains, and I suspect they were closely watched by workers in other factories—especially Chattanooga,” he said. “If they do win, there could be a domino effect at several of the other 13 nonunion automakers.”