By Nora Eckert
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Reuters) – Workers at the Volkswagen (ETR:) Tennessee plant have voted to join the United Auto Workers, achieving a seismic victory for the union as it pushes beyond its Detroit base into the South and West of United States.
A majority of eligible workers voted to unionize, with Friday’s final tally ranging from 2,628 to 985, or 73% in favor of joining the UAW.
The victory will make the Chattanooga plant the first Southern auto plant to unionize via ballot measure since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned Southern auto plant to do so.
The victory represents a huge boost of confidence for UAW President Shawn Fain’s campaign to unionize plants owned by more than a dozen automakers in the United States, including Tesla (NASDAQ:). Fain and his team have committed to spending $40 million by 2026 on this effort.
Jubilant workers, some in tears, raised their arms in victory and held up “Union Yes” posters as the results were announced.
“I’m thrilled that we actually accomplished what we set out to do,” said VW employee Lisa Elliott, hugging her colleagues. “Tell Mercedes they’re next,” she cheered.
A Mercedes plant in Alabama, where a majority of workers have signed cards indicating support for unionization, will be the next plant to host UAW elections, during the week of May 13.
Although the UAW narrowly lost votes at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, this year’s vote was preceded by growing public support for unions and successful contract negotiations last year with the Big Three automakers.
“The margin is overwhelming,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is a historic moment.”
VW took a neutral stance on the vote at its only non-unionized factory globally. The UAW previously represented VW workers at a Pennsylvania plant that built Rabbit cars before it closed in 1988.
For decades, the union has targeted auto plants in the South, where anti-union sentiment has long been entrenched. Earlier this week, Republican governors in six Southern states, including Tennessee, spoke out in opposition to the union push.
In addition to the two small losses suffered earlier by VW, the UAW has suffered three additional significant incidents at Nissan-owned (OTC:) Southern plants, the latest in 2017 in Mississippi.
But the broader labor movement has since undergone something of a renaissance, with record numbers of workers in various sectors going on strike last year.
U.S. President Joe Biden walked the picket lines last fall outside Detroit, where the union won double-digit percentage raises and cost-of-living increases from General Motors (NYSE:), Ford Motor (NYSE:) and Stellantis (NYSE:). . That sparked a wave of raises by nonunion automakers that some analysts said were designed to keep unions out.
Biden rebuked Republican governors in a statement after the vote. “I will continue to stand with American workers and oppose Republicans’ attempts to undermine working people’s voices,” said Biden, who is running for re-election this year.
In addition to the Mercedes plant, the UAW said more than 30% of employees at a Hyundai (OTC:) plant in Alabama and a Missouri plant Toyota (NYSE:) auto parts factories have signed papers indicating they wish to join the UAW.
Pro-union workers at the VW plant say they have been campaigning for greater job security, better work-life balance and better benefits.
“Now that it’s official I can relax,” said Robert Crump, who has worked at VW for 12 years and voted yes in all three union elections. “It’s a really good feeling.”