The UAW has broken a decades-long string of frustration as a majority of workers at the Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee have voted to come under union representation, the first foreign-owned, U.S. plant to do so.
The vote was administered by the National Labor Relations Board which much certify the results, but a release sent out by Volkswagen said all 3,613 ballots cast had been counted, representing 83.5% of employees who were eligible to vote with 2,268 voting yes and 985 no votes.
“Volkswagen thanks its Chattanooga workers for voting in this election,” the automaker said in its release.
“We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking,” said Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW’s proficiency room, in a UAW release. “You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That’s why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there’s no way to stop them.”
Pres. Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating the Volkswagen workers on voting to join the union and called out a group of southern governors who attempted to dissuade them from voting yes.
“Six Republican governors wrote a letter attempting to influence workers’ votes by falsely claiming that a successful vote would jeopardize jobs in their states. Let me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose,” Pres. Biden said in his statement.
There are several steps before UAW representation is official for the more than 3,000 workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant .
Volkswagen must “begin bargaining in good faith with the union,” according to NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado. Now that balloting is complete “the parties will have five business days to file objections to the election. If no objections are filed, the result will be certified,” Blado explained in an email.
Indeed, bargaining for that first contract is no simple task, Fain said during an interview for a story previewing the vote.
“That’s the hard part of this,” Fain said. “You know, people put so much focus on the election. The election is important because you have to vote to organize to get the first contract but you know, the first contract will also be a big deal.”
The UAW needed a win. Its membership sunk to 370,239 last year according to the annual report the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor earlier this month. That’s down from 383,000 in 2022 and the lowest since 2009.
The UAW will have only a few weeks to revel in this first victory before 5,000 workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Alabama vote on whether to join the union.
Voting for workers at an SUV plant in Vance and a battery plant in Woodstock, both near Tuscaloosa, is set for May 13—17.