Union election at Tennessee VW plant is a major test for UAW auto industry organizing effort

The United Auto Workers’ bid to organize the nonunion auto industry and make inroads in the South will be put to the test this week.

Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote by secret ballot April 17–19 in an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board. For decades, the union has struggled to expand its reach beyond the domestic auto industry and into the South, a major auto manufacturing hub that’s widely covered by anti-union laws.

The VW vote will set the tone for the UAW’s drive to organize about 150,000 autoworkers at more than a dozen foreign automakers and EV manufacturers. The push is aimed at boosting the UAW’s membership and securing workers’ place in the EV transition.

Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told Tech Brew that the election is the union’s “best chance,” given a long history of organizing efforts there that yielded narrow losses for the union votes in 2014 and 2019.

The odds may be more in the union’s favor this time.

“I think the UAW has dramatically increased its approval ratings over the last year or two compared to previously,” Wheaton said. “They got huge wins at the Detroit Three negotiations. They had the president of the United States walking a picket line with them.”

The stakes are high: A win would give workers across the industry more leverage to negotiate with employers, he said.

Isaac Meadows, an assembly worker at the plant, said in a statement that he’s “voting yes to win a better life for ourselves and our families. We need a say in our schedules, benefits, pay, and more. We’re proud to work at Volkswagen, but we also know the value of a voice at work.”

Volkswagen has said it respects the rights of its workers to decide if they want to unionize, and noted recent improvements, like 11% raises.

The union’s next chance won’t be far behind: Workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, earlier this month filed a petition for an NLRB election.

The UAW reported in February that more than 10,000 auto workers across the country had signed union authorization cards; Hyundai and Toyota workers also have taken their campaigns public.