March 18 (UPI) — Workers at a Tennessee-based Volkswagen plant on Monday took the needed steps to join the United Auto Workers union in what is the last global VW plant to organize.
A “supermajority” of the thousands of workers at the Chattanooga, Tenn., auto manufacturing facility filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election vote to join the UAW union after a supermajority of the 4,000 workers over a 100-day period voted “yes” to unionize by signing their union cards.
In a video released Monday by UAW highlighting workers reasons for joining the union, many expressed a need to feel heard and to provide better lives for their families, among many other reasons.
“Right now, we miss time with our families because so much of our paid-time-off is burned up during the summer and winter shutdowns,” Isaac Meadows, a VW assembly team member, said in a statement released by the union.
Meadows said workers “shouldn’t have to choose between our family and our job. By winning our union and a real voice at Volkswagen, we can negotiate for more time with our families.”
Victor Vaughn, on the logistics team, said many workers voted yes to unionize “because we want Volkswagen to be successful” after he cited safety concerns.
He added how VW “has spent billions of dollars expanding in Chattanooga, but right now safety is a major issue in our plant.”
The union said the Chattanooga victory is the last non-union VW auto plant globally to file for a union election “among the dozens of auto plants where workers have been organizing in recent months” in a grassroots effort that had transpired in the wake of other UAW union victories in recent months.
VW told CNBC that it respects its workers’ rights to unionize.
“We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision. The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our working environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the area,” the company said.
In February, more than 30% of Hyundai workers in Alabama supported an effort to join UAW, which represents nearly half of the U.S. automotive workforce in vehicle manufacturing after Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru and Nissan all announced plans to raise worker pay following the UAW strike win.
Last October, UAW reached a deal with General Motors to end six weeks of targeted strikes where more than 10,000 GM workers were striking at locations across the country after a missed Sept. 14 deadline to agree to a new labor agreement, which reportedly cost Michigan-based GM nearly $1 billion in lost revenue.
