According to a statement from United Auto Workers (UAW), more than half of the employees at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant have voted to unionize.
“A majority of workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant have signed cards to join the UAW, less than sixty days after the workers announced their campaign to form a union at the German automaker’s only US assembly plant,” according to a UAW press release.
“The milestone marks the first non-union auto plant to publicly announce majority support among the dozens of auto plants where workers have begun organizing in recent months,” says the release. “The grassroots effort sprang up in the wake of the record victories for Big Three autoworkers in the UAW’s historic Stand Up Strike win.”
The battle over unionization has been hard fought, stemming back years.
In 2019, workers at the same plant rejected unionization, as reported by The Tennessee Star.
“We are happy for our families, for Volkswagen Chattanooga, and for our community. What started as just a handful of us grew into a force of hardworking employees determined to better educate voters about the decision before them,” the workers said in a statement in 2019. “And now all of us have spoken. We are grateful for those in the community who rallied behind our efforts and thankful to our fellow workers who joined us along the way. We will continue to advocate for the best interests of our families and for the future of Volkswagen Chattanooga and look forward to getting back to what we do best: working as one team to build quality cars.”
At that time, a grassroots group of workers called Southern Momentum opposed the deal, and workers complained of intimidation from the union.
But that tune changed in Tuesday’s unionization announcement.
Zach Costello, a Volkswagen worker and trainer in the plant’s Proficiency Room, spoke positively of the effort.
“The excitement has been building, and now that we have reached 50%, it is just continuing to grow. New organizers are joining each day spreading our effort to every area of the plant,” he said. “Just because we are in the South, it does not mean that our work is worth less, that our benefits should be diminished, or that we don’t have rights. All workers should have a voice, and I hope the success that we’re having here is showing workers across the country what is possible.”
Another employee said that employees were “not being recognized as a major resource for the company” and that “working conditions could be a lot better.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
Photo “Chattanooga Volkswagen” by Chattanooga Volkswagen.
