Union claims surging support for organizing vote at Tennessee VW plant

A majority of workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee manufacturing plant have signed organizing cards with the United Auto Workers, a significant step forward in the union’s efforts to target U.S. and international carmakers who have set up operations throughout the South.

The UAW announced the numbers on Tuesday in support of a vote on joining the union, and sympathetic workers claim that support for the union will only continue to grow.

“The excitement has been building, and now that we have reached 50%, it is just continuing to grow,” VW worker Zach Costello said in a statement. “New organizers are joining each day spreading our effort to every area of the plant.”

UAW tried to organize the Chattanooga plant before in 2014, but an election vote failed when a majority of workers voted against the union.

Word of majority support for the union at the only VW plant in the U.S. comes just a few months after UAW leaders announced their intentions to organize non-union automakers. Since the announcement, support for the union has been growing in small pockets across the nation.

The auto workers union says it is trying to build on the momentum of a series of coordinated strikes last year that won major wage increases and other benefits from the Big Three U.S automakers. President Biden became the first sitting president to walk a picket line when he joined striking workers seeking new contracts from Ford, GM and Stellantis, the parent company of what once was Chrysler.

Outside of VW, UAW has begun efforts to unionize a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama. So far the results have been promising for the union, with over 30% of workers signing union cards. Islands of support have also sprung up at other foreign automakers in the U.S. including Honda and Hyundai.

However, the union has promised not to hold elections until at least 70% of plant employees have signed union cards. The union hopes the more conservative strategy will earn them more victories than in the past.

UAW President Shawn Fain’s brash tactics and rhetoric have not been absent, however. Soon after organization efforts began, UAW filed an unfair labor practice suit against Honda, Hyundai and VW in December.