Volkswagen workers vote yes to unionizing, igniting UAW’s push to organize the

Workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., have voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers, setting a new trajectory for labor unions in the American South.

With roughly 3,600 votes counted, more than 2,600 were in favor of joining the UAW, and fewer than 1,000 against, according to a real-time vote tally posted by the union. An official tally is expected soon from the National Labor Relations Board, once the ballot count is complete.

The UAW pulled off the resounding victory after two prior defeats in a region deeply skeptical of unions and despite repeated warnings from state Republican leaders and the business community that unionizing would be a big mistake.

Quinton North, who assembles battery packs for the Volkswagen ID.4 electric SUV, voted no in the last union election at Volkswagen in 2019, swayed by pervasive anti-union messaging in that campaign.

This time, North voted yes, citing the leadership of UAW president Shawn Fain as a big reason.

“He’s really showed what he is — he’s for the workers,” he said at a UAW-organized watch party in Chattanooga.

Some 4,300 hourly workers at the plant were eligible to vote this week. The union needed a simple majority of votes cast to win the election.

From early in the count, it was clear that the UAW had won many workers over, not just North. Yes votes quickly began outnumbering no votes by about 3 to 1, a lead that held throughout the night.

Chattanooga plant was previously a place of UAW defeat

All eyes were on the Volkswagen vote, given two previous defeats for the UAW’s attempt to organize the same Chattanooga plant in 2014 and 2019. Similar efforts at several other auto manufacturing plants in the South have also failed over the years.

One of the key reasons is that these jobs have paid well compared to others in the region, and many workers haven’t felt the need for union representation. In fact, over the years, Southern states lured foreign automakers with not just hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives but some assurance that the companies wouldn’t have to deal with the UAW if they didn’t want to.

The pitch worked. In the last three decades or so, around a dozen foreign auto plants have opened up, from Nissan and Toyota to Honda and Mercedes, among others. Collectively, they’ve created tens of thousands of jobs for the Southern economy.

Politicians warned jobs were in jeopardy

Republican leaders in the state had warned that those jobs could be lost should workers join the UAW.

“I believe it would be a big mistake for those workers to risk their future by giving up the freedom to decide it themselves and hand that over to a negotiator on their behalf,” said Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on a visit to Chattanooga earlier this month.