Yolanda Peoples is ready to get the vote started. The 13-year veteran and her co-workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee begin voting Wednesday on whether to join the UAW.
“Everybody was just ready to get the game to a vote and once they announced the vote, everybody’s like, yes,” said Peoples in an interview.
If enough of the more than 3,000 workers vote yes during the three-day voting period that ends Friday, they’ll become the first at a foreign-owned plant in the U.S. to join the union.
The UAW has failed at every attempt so far to win similar votes at a so-called transplant. But in an interview, UAW President Shawn Fain said he’s sure that string is about to end.
“They’re fed up with being left behind, not just in this country in this world,” Fain said. “I’m confident knowing the workers down there, speaking with them on multiple occasions, I’m very confident that they’re going to vote for union.”
A leading labor expert mirrors Fain’s confidence that the vote at VW will finally go the UAW’s way in part because of Fain’s big wins during last fall’s contract negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers along with a shift in the culture.
“I think it truly is a moment for the UAW,” said Harley Shaiken, labor expert and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview. “Unions are at near record popularity with Americans as shown in relatively recent polls. Gallup stands out where 67% of those polled, I think, last September, had a favorable opinion of unions. In particular, younger workers have a very favorable impression of the unions. So that’s one dimension. Second, unions have shown in the last few years so they really do deliver.”
Yolanda Peoples ruefully remembers the last time workers at the plant had an opportunity to vote on UAW representation. That was in 2019. The vote failed.
While a change in the workforce has brought it more of those who had either worked in union shops or are familiar with the ramifications of union members, People says hasn’t changed.
“The biggest thing is outside forces that are coming in and trying to persuade employees to vote no. They have no basis whatsoever trying to determine how we live our lives,” said Peoples.
There’s always a gamble when you put an issue to a vote. The UAW has lost before and it could be on the short end again.
But this time around, a loss wouldn’t necessarily be devastating to the union, according to one labor expert.
“A defeat would be a setback, but Shawn Fain has earned a great deal of organizational capital because of his willingness to fight,” observed Marick Masters, professor of business in the Department of Management and Information Systems at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University in Detroit, in an interview conducted by email. “The membership would respond favorably if he took defeat with defiance and pledge to continue the organizing campaign while learning from past mistakes.”
Indeed, just as Volkswagen workers begin to cast their ballots, their counterparts at a Mercedes-
Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to hold their own vote on UAW representation.
24-year employee and organizer Jeremy Kimbrell says support is building within the plant towards a successful vote.
“We got the majority of our workers signed up,” said Kimbrell in an interview. “We get cards signed every day.”
Shawn Fain said he plans to be in Chattanooga during the voting period to “be there” for the VW workers and hopefully, celebrate a victory.
Yolanda Peoples and her co-workers just want the voting to begin, declaring, “Everybody’s ready.”
