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chattanooga
After Historic Union Vote, Chattanooga VW Workers Rally for 'Record Contract'
"You're the backbone of this plant, you're the backbone of this company, and you deserve your fair share of the wealth that you create," UAW President Shawn Fain told workers.
Sep 15, 2024
Following their historic vote to join the United Auto Workers in April, workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee held a rally on Sunday as they prepare to head into their first round of negotiations with the company next week.
With their vote, the Chattanooga workers became the first Southern automakers not affiliated with one of the Big Three auto companies to win a union.
"Just a few months ago, you voted 3-1 to join the UAW," the union's president Shawn Fain told the assembled workers, adding, "You had faith, and you moved mountains, you overcame opposition, and you won your union."
"With the kinds of profits you're generating, Volkswagen could double your wages, not raise prices, and still make billions of dollars. It's a choice."
At a rally that began at 1:30 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, Fain told gathered workers that they were now ready for the "next step."
"We tell Volkswagen, get out your pens, because it's time to put it down in writing," Fain said.
Heading into negotiations, the UAW is set to make several demands of Volkswagen, among them improved health and safety; competitive wages including cost of living allowances, profit sharing, and no tiers; improved paid-time-off policies; more retirement security; affordable healthcare; and union protections such as due process, union representation, paid time for union work, job training, and fair promotion policies.
Fain warned the workers that the company and the corporate media would try to fearmonger about the union's demands.
"They're going to say that our righteous fight for a high quality of life for the working class will wreck the economy or derail the transition to EV," Fain said, adding, "The only economy that's going to get wrecked in this is their economy that only works for the rich and the corporate class."
Fain shared figures showing that Volkswagen had increased its profits since 2021 by 49% compared with the previous three years, securing $24 billion in profits in 2023 alone. But instead of sharing that windfall equitably with the workforce and the local economy, it paid CEO Oliver Blume $10.5 million and wealthy shareholders $12.7 billion. Shareholders have seen their dividends jump by 288% in two years.
"That's billions of dollars that have been robbed from the workers who generated those profits," Fain said. "It's billions of dollars that weren't spent on the EV transition. It's billions of dollars being spent on mansions in faraway countries and yachts in private marinas, and not being spent in the local businesses right here in Tennessee."
At the same time, workers at the Chattanooga plant had produced more than 1.5 million vehicles for over $50 billion in sales since 2011.
"You're the backbone of this plant, you're the backbone of this company, and you deserve your fair share of the wealth that you create," Fain said, adding, "With the kinds of profits you're generating, Volkswagen could double your wages, not raise prices, and still make billions of dollars. It's a choice."
Ultimately, Fain said the figures he cited had one cause: "corporate greed."
Fain noted that the Chattanooga workers were entering negotiations for their first union contract roughly one year after UAW workers at the Big Three car makers launched their historic "stand up strike, ultimately winning record-breaking contracts from General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
"Since that moment, workers everywhere including here at Volkswagen are standing up to fight corporate greed and demand your fair share in the economy," Fain said.
He told the Chattanooga workers, "Now is your time to win a record contract and make history again."
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Can the UAW Turn It Around for Labor in the South?
If roughly 5,000 Alabama Mercedes workers vote to unionize in the coming weeks, the ripple effects could empower workers nationwide.
May 04, 2024
The United Auto Workers recently scored the largest union victory in decades in the South. Their success at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant could be a turning point for labor in a region long known for governmental hostility to unions.
The next test will be a UAW election scheduled for the week of May 13 at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama, a state that has attracted so much auto investment it has earned the nickname “the Detroit of the South.”
If the roughly 5,000 Mercedes workers vote to unionize, the ripple effects could empower workers nationwide.
We need a New South economic structure based on fairness and equity.
For decades, Southern states have pursued “low-road” development strategies, luring investors with massive public subsidies and repressive labor policies. This has pitted workers across the country against each other, undercutting everyone’s ability to secure fair compensation.
Alabama has spent $1.6 billion to woo Mercedes, along with Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda. All these foreign companies’ operations in the South are non-union, in contrast to the unionized Big Three of Ford, GM, and Stellantis.
This foreign investment has created thousands of Alabama jobs—but with weak worker protections, the state remains one of the nation’s poorest. And while these companies have enjoyed rising corporate profits, they have left workers behind.
An in-depth report by the nonprofit group Alabama Arise found that inflation-adjusted average pay for the state’s autoworkers has dropped by 11% over the past 20 years to $64,682. Meanwhile, CEO pay stands at $13.9 million at Mercedes and $6.9 million at Toyota.
The foreign-owned firms’ payrolls also reflect Alabama’s long history of racial discrimination, with Black and Latino workers earning substantially less than their white counterparts. By contrast, the Economic Policy Institute has found that union workers make 10.1% more on average than non-union workers.
The benefits are even greater for workers of color. Unionized Black workers make 13.1% more than non-union Black workers in comparable jobs—and Latino union members make 18.8% more than non-union Latino workers.
Equitable pay practices boost local economies by putting more money in workers’ pockets for groceries, housing, and other goods and services from local businesses. And that’s good for families of every color.
But Alabama Governor Kay Ivey doesn’t see things that way. Before the UAW vote in Tennessee, she joined GOP governors from Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas to discourage VW workers from voting yes with unfounded threats of mass layoffs.
When 73% of those autoworkers voted for the UAW, it was a strong rebuke of the region’s low-road, anti-worker model. So corporate lobbyists in the region have enlisted state legislators and cabinet officials in a sustained campaign to blunt organizing momentum.
How will the election turn out in Alabama?
A new poll indicates that 52% of residents in this deep-red state support the autoworkers’ union drive, while just 21% are opposed. This echoes a 2022 poll commissioned by the Institute for Policy Studies in Jefferson County, Alabama, where workers were attempting to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer. That survey showed nearly two-thirds support.
While the Alabama Amazon campaign fell short in the face of aggressive anti-union tactics, increased public approval of unions is a testament to many years of community and labor organizing.
The fact that a large majority of workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant signed petitions earlier this year in support of the election is encouraging. We need a New South economic structure based on fairness and equity. Organized labor is an essential partner in that mission.
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'You All Moved a Mountain': Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Vote to Join UAW
"We're poised to be the first domino of many to fall," one worker at the Chattanooga plant said.
Apr 20, 2024
Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, became the first Southern autoworkers not employed by one of the Big Three car manufacturers to win a union Friday night when they voted to join the United Auto Workers by a "landslide" majority.
This is the first major victory for the UAW after it launched the biggest organizing drive in modern U.S. history on the heels of its "stand up strike" that secured historic contracts with the Big Three in fall 2023.
"Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly before we announced this campaign, 'You can't win in the South,'" UAW president Shawn Fain told the victorious workers in a video shared by UAW. "They said Southern workers aren't ready for it. They said non-union autoworkers didn't have it in them. But you all said, 'Watch this!' And you all moved a mountain."
"This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
According to the UAW's real-time results, the vote tally now stands at 2,628—or 73%—yes to 985—or 27%—no. Voting at the around 4,300-worker plant began Wednesday.
The Chattanooga workers announced their current union drive in December 2023. Friday's victory follows two failed unionization attempts at the plant in 2014 and 2019.
"We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking," Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW's proficiency room, said in a statement. "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."
The union's win comes despite the opposition of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
"Today, I joined fellow governors in opposing the UAW's unionization campaign," Lee said on social media Tuesday. "We want to keep good-paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers."
However, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) celebrated the win.
"Watching history tonight in Chattanooga, as Volkswagen workers voted in a landslide to join the UAW," he wrote on social media Friday night. "Despite pressure from Gov. Lee, this is the first auto plant in the South to unionize since the 1940s. This incredible victory for labor will transform Tennessee and the South!"
Other national labor leaders and progressive politicians also congratulated the Chattanooga workers.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, said the win "shows what we already know—workers in every part of this country want the freedom to join a union, and when we stand together, we have tremendous power. Even though the deck is stacked against us, momentum is on our side, and we're winning."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "This is a huge victory not only for UAW workers at Volkswagen, but for every worker in America. The tide is turning. Workers all across the country, even in our most conservative states, are sick and tired of corporate greed and are demanding economic justice."
"I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called the results "an utterly historic victory for the working class."
"Tennessee is shining bright tonight," she wrote on social media Friday. "We are in a new era. Congratulations to the courageous workers in Chattanooga and the entire UAW. Absolutely heroic. Solidarity IS the strategy—across the South, and all over the country."
More Perfect Union said the victory would "change the auto industry, and the future of American labor," and the campaign organizers themselves are aware of the importance of what they've accomplished.
"We understand that the world's watching us," worker Isaac Meadows, who has been at the plant for one year, told More Perfect Union. "You know there's a labor movement in this country, you know, we're poised to be the first domino of many to fall."
Worker Kelcey Smith, who has also been at the plant for one year, added, "I think it's a great push for the entire South, and people will follow suit."
The next domino to fall could be the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, where a UAW election is scheduled from May 13-17. All told, more than 10,000 non-union car makers have signed union cards since the UAW launched its historic organizing drive.
For the Chattanooga workers, meanwhile, their next big fight will be to secure their first union-negotiated contract.
"The real fight begins now," Fain told cheering workers. "The real fight is getting your fair share. The real fight is the fight to get more time with your families. The real fight is the fight for our union contract."
"And I can guarantee you one thing," Fain continued, "this international unionist leadership, this membership all over this nation has your back in this fight."
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