Volkswagen workers vote on joining the UAW in Tennessee

Detroit — “ Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote this week on whether to organize with the United Auto Workers union in a key test of the union's influence.

A win would give the UAW its first major win for overseas automakers General Motors, ford motorand parent Chrysler Stellantis. It will also provide a starting point for the union's unprecedented regulatory push that includes 13 U.S. automakers after winning major contracts in 2023 with Detroit companies.

The loss would mark the latest organizational failure for the Detroit-based union after decades of failed campaigns outside the Big Three, including at Volkswagen's Tennessee plant in 2014 and 2019. It would also be a major setback for the UAW and President Sean Fine, who was elected in 2023 as a reform candidate after a years-long federal corruption scandal involving former union leaders.

More than 4,000 Volkswagen workers are eligible to vote, starting on Wednesday and ending at 8pm EST on Friday. The regulatory vote, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, would need a simple majority to succeed.

Fine and others see this week's vote as the union's best chance to organize the Volkswagen plant after record contracts and strikes at Detroit automakers, which launched Fine to international prominence as the face of the union last year.

The standard contracts the UAW has with Detroit's Big Three automakers are the biggest difference between the current union campaign and previous efforts at Volkswagen, said Stephen Sylvia, author of “The UAW's Southern Gamble: Organizing Workers at Foreign-Owned Auto Plants.”

“This is the best opportunity for the UAW out of all their trips to Chattanooga,” he said.

Sylvia, a professor at American University in Washington, D.C., said political conditions, company messaging and Fine's leadership created a more favorable environment for the union than during previous organizing campaigns.

Volkswagen, which has unionized workers at non-U.S. plants, said it would let its workers decide whether to organize. The company said it only moved to clarify information it felt was misleading or incorrect regarding issues such as wages and benefits, but it did not publicly oppose union organizing. It also launched a campaign called “Vote for the Workplace You Want,” to encourage all employees to do so.

“We respect our workers’ right to a democratic process and to decide who should represent their interests,” Volkswagen said in a statement. “We fully support the NLRB vote so that every team member has the opportunity to cast a confidential vote on this important decision. Volkswagen is proud of our work environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the region.”

In addition to less political pressure in the right-to-work state, there are also fewer organized efforts against the union than in previous campaigns. One group called “VW Chatt Workers, for VW Chatt Workers” has in recent weeks begun opposing UAW organizing, including on the “Still No UAW” website.

One group member, who asked to remain anonymous because of the repercussions if the UAW organizes successfully, said he fears the union will cause problems at the plant, including the possibility of layoffs as workers win more benefits during negotiations.

The assembly employee, who has more than 10 years at the plant, said it is not guaranteed that the German automaker will agree to the same wages and benefits as GM, Ford and Stellantis.

“The big three, they got a decent contract… but we're not the big three,” the veteran worker said. “They are bigger companies [in the U.S.] “When contracts come into negotiations, it won’t be the same.”

He said this UAW organizing drive looks different from the previous two movers because there is less outside political pressure, the union has new leadership and organizing tactics and more new workers are supporting the union at the plant.

Volkswagen workers filed for election in March after the vast majority of them signed union cards, according to the UAW. Volkswagen workers reached a majority in early February — two months after launching their public campaign to join the UAW.

Unlike previous organizing efforts, the union is using a grassroots, or bottom-up, campaign led by workers at the plant rather than leaders in the international union. Sylvia said this strategy helped send messages.

In 2019, Volkswagen workers at the Chattanooga plant rejected union representation by a vote of 833 to 776.

“Right now, we just need a voice in the factory,” said Isaac Meadows, an assembly worker who has been working at the Volkswagen plant for 14 months. “Right now, we are subject to the whims of the company.” “There are a lot of issues that we want to have a say on, and by coming together to form our union, it puts us in a position to negotiate all of those things.”

Meadows said he makes $27 an hour and that his top priorities are pay, benefits and extra time off.

Volkswagen production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 an hour and $32.40 an hour, with a four-year increase to reach top wages, according to the company.

Wages negotiated by the UAW this year for Detroit automakers range between about $25 an hour and $36 an hour for production workers, including estimated cost-of-living adjustments. By the end of UAW contracts in 2028, top wages are expected to exceed $42 an hour for production workers.

“The guy who made the Ford Explorer is worth twice as much as we are to Volkswagen,” Meadows said. He added that “everyone was watching” the outcome of the UAW's talks with Detroit automakers.

The UAW used the new wages and other benefits to drum up calls for unorganized auto workers to join the union.

Volkswagen is one of 13 non-union automakers in the United States that the UAW set its sights on late last year after securing record contracts with Detroit automakers. The campaign covers nearly 150,000 automakers across BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan. Riviansubaru, TeslaToyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

Plant workers at a Mercedes-Benz assembly plant in Alabama earlier this month filed NLRB paperwork to make a formal election to join the UAW.

“The first thing you have to do to win is to believe you can win,” Fine told Mercedes-Benz workers last month. “That this job could be better. That your life could be better. That these things are worth fighting for. That's why we stand up. That's why you're here today. Because deep down, you believe it's possible.”

Fain previously pledged to surpass the Big Three and expand into the “Big Five or Big Six” by the time his 4 1/2-year contracts with the Detroit automakers expire.