Dive Brief:
- Autoworkers at the Volkswagen Group’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers union from April 17 to 19, according to a regulatory filing last week.
- The measure can be voted on by all part- and full-time production and maintenance workers at the facility, which employs 4,300 people.
- The news comes less than two months after the UAW announced that more than half the plant’s autoworkers had signed union authorization cards.
Dive Insight:
The April vote would be the first nonunion auto plant to hold a UAW election since the union won major concessions from the Detroit Three automakers last fall, according to the UAW.
Following the historic wage gains the UAW won for its members from the Detroit Three, the UAW launched a nationwide campaign in November to organize almost 150,000 non-union autoworkers at over a dozen automakers, including Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Volkswagen. Since then, over 10,000 non-union autoworkers at four plants have signed union cards, according to the UAW.
In addition to VW’s plant in Tennessee, the union drive has gained steam recently after more than 30% of autoworkers signed union cards at Hyundai’s assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama, Mercedes-Benz’s assembly plant in Vance, Alabama, and the Toyota engine plant in Troy, Missouri.
Last month, the UAW announced it would commit $40 million through 2026 to support ongoing unionization efforts at non-union auto and joint venture battery plants. Nonunion employees at more than two dozen other facilities are still organizing, the UAW said.
