UAW says over 1,000 workers at VW plant in Tennessee have signed cards seeking union representation
DETROIT– More than 1,000 workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee have signed cards authorizing a vote on representation by the United Auto Workers, the first factory in the country to reach this milestone in the UAW's quest to win more than a to organize a dozen non-union factories.
The union said on Thursday that the VW workers had signed up within a week.
The Chattanooga plant employs about 3,800 people who make the VW ID.4 electric car and the Atlas family of gas-powered SUVs. It could be the first test of the union strategy to try to organize the non-union plants at the same time.
The UAW said workers have complained of mistreatment by management, including mandatory overtime on Saturdays, and are demanding higher wages.
In November, VW gave workers at the plant an 11% pay increase. The increases came after UAW members ratified new contracts with Detroit automakers. The union says VW's wages lag behind what workers earn at UAW-represented auto plants.
The UAW pacts with General Motors, Ford and Jeep maker Stellantis include a 25% wage increase by the time the contracts expire in April 2028. The cost of living increase means workers will see about 33% in pay increases at a top salary of $42 an hour, plus annual profit sharing, the union said.
In a statement, VW said it is proud of the “world-class manufacturing environment” it has created in Chattanooga and said wages and benefits demonstrate commitment to employees. The top workers at the assembly plant earn $32.40 an hour, the company said.
VW said it believes in dialogue with employees so they can help shape the working environment. “We also respect our employees' right to determine who should represent their interests in the workplace,” the statement said.
VW said it has invested more than $4.3 billion in the plant, creating more than 1,200 jobs and driving another shift to make the ID.4.
In 2014 and 2019, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga twice rejected a plant-wide union under the UAW. Some prominent Tennessee Republican politicians had urged workers to vote against the union during both campaigns.
The year after the 2014 vote failed, 160 Chattanooga maintenance workers won a vote to form a smaller union, but Volkswagen refused to negotiate. Volkswagen had argued that the bargaining unit should include production workers. As a result, the 2019 factory-wide vote followed.
Less than two weeks after ratifying new contracts with automakers in Detroit, the UAW announced plans to try to simultaneously organize workers at its non-union plants, which are majority owned by foreign automakers.
The UAW says the action affects nearly 150,000 workers at factories largely in the South, where the union has had little success recruiting new members.
The organizing effort will target U.S. plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo. Also on the union's list are U.S. factories run by Tesla, the leader in electric vehicle sales, and EV startups Rivian and Lucid.
The union says its strategy includes calling for elections at factories when about 70% of workers have signed up. A union can call an election through the National Labor Relations Board once a majority of employees support it.
Workers at Nissan's Smyrna, Tennessee, plant have also twice rejected a plant-wide union under the UAW, although the votes were not close in 2001 and 1989.
The Smyrna plant's fewer than 100 tool and die workers also voted loudly last March against forming a union under the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, in a campaign hampered by a two-year delay for National Labor Relations Board.
The Japan-based automaker's other U.S. assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi, rejected UAW representation for the entire plant in a 2017 vote.