The National Labor Relations Board said the vote was 262 to 985, or 73% approval. The voting started at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday and ran until 8 p.m. Friday.

“In a historic victory, an overwhelming majority of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have voted to join the UAW,” said union spokesman Jonah Furman. “The outcome is clear; Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga are the first Southern autoworkers outside of the Big Three to win their union.”

After the vote, UAW President Shawn Fain told reporters at the plant that the vote reflects the fact that working-class people are “fed up with being left behind” and living paycheck to paycheck.

“This gives workers everywhere else the indication that it's OK and it can be done,” Fain said about organizing the VW plant. “All we heard for years is that we can't do this in the South. And you can. Workers can do it. It's time for workers to take more control of their lives. The only way they can take control of their work lives is by forming a union.”

The union will now represent the only VW plant in the United States, winning by a landslide after failed votes in 2014 and 2019. The victory came in spite of opposition by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who joined five other Republican governors in issuing a joint statement in opposition to the UAW’s organizing efforts in the South. The union was able to successfully capitalize on the momentum from its successful strike against the Big Three automakers this fall.

The UAW hopes to further build on this momentum by organizing the Mercedes-Benz plants in Vance and Woodstock, Alabama this May.

#ChattanoogaTN #Labor #UAW #Unionize #VW

The vote was triggered after UAW filed cards with the NLRB. Union spokespeople say that they turned in “super majority” on signed union cards in February. This super majority on cards signed came about after a two month campaign to organize a union, signaling strong energy around the idea of unionizing.

Isaac Meadows is an assembly worker at Volkswagen said, “We’re voting yes to win a better life for ourselves and our families.” Meadows went on to say, “We need a say in our schedules, benefits, pay and more. We’re proud to work at Volkswagen, but we also know the value of a voice at work.”

At the same time as the vote is occurring in Tennessee, UAW has now secured a vote for thousands of auto workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant outside of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The NLRB announced on Thursday that the vote for the Mercedes-Benz workers will take place from May 13 to May 17, with the voted being counted on May 17.

These votes to join UAW happening in the South follow a contract fight at the Big Three automakers in 2023 that saw thousands of UAW members striking in a highly successful wave of “stand up strikes” across the U.S. which resulted in major contract gains. UAW has long talked about and even attempted organizing in the South, however previous attempts have all floundered and the elections were filed for without ever seeing a majority on cards.

While the results of these elections are still to be seen, it is clear that UAW is serious about its intention to organize the South, and to organize across more auto companies. According to the union, more than 10,000 non-union auto workers have signed cards to join UAW in the last few months. They now also launched organizing campaigns publicly at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama, at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, and at Toyota in Troy, Missouri. The UAW says that workers at more than two dozen other facilities are also actively organizing.

One clear way to see the difference between this attempt and previous ones is that UAW says that over 5000 autoworkers who will be part of the Mercedes vote in Alabama have signed union cards, and as of 2023 the total bargaining unit affected was around 6100 workers, signaling a dominant majority in support of forming their union.

#ChattanoogaTN #TN #Labor #Auto #UAW #NLRB

In 2018 many rank-and-file union members and leaders participated in a far-reaching campaign to win a “No” vote against a widely unpopular proposed national contract with UPS. They haven’t forgotten the Hoffa administration’s use of an obscure clause in the union’s constitution – known as the Two-Thirds Rule – to forcibly impose the contract, despite the members voting to reject it.

Now the Teamster Convention is coming in June and July 2021. At the convention, nominations for International leadership positions, along with proposals for amendments to the constitution, will take place. Delegates will be there to support both the reform-driven “Teamsters United” slate, led by Sean O’Brien and Fred Zuckerman, and backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, as well as the Hoffa-appointed old-guard-successor “Teamster Power” slate led by Steve Vairma and Ron Herrera.

Thousands of Teamsters continue to work under the imposed UPS contract which includes an unpopular 22.4 hybrid job classification, in which UPS workers are working more hours for less pay with fewer protections. The memory of the 2018 contract battle remains a clear driver of rank-and-file momentum for reform and better leadership. The contract expires in 2023.

Severin Mortensen, a Teamsters United member and steward at UPS in Lansing, Michigan said, “During the previous contract cycle, a two-tier wage system and a number of other concessions were on the table. The members rightly voted it down, but Hoffa, Dennis Taylor, and the other old guard leadership forced the contract through anyway. With the IBT convention and international elections coming up, we have an opportunity to remove the two-thirds rule that was used to impose the contract and kick out the company collaborators at the top.”

Those who are organizing to remove the Hoffa leadership say they need an amended constitution that respects the vote of the members and a stronger contract with UPS that no longer includes a two-tier wage system.

Thousands of rank-and-file Teamsters have organized against the massively profitable UPS and continue to rally around a broad coalition that supports the O’Brien-Zuckerman slate. They say they want to build an International Brotherhood of Teamsters that is ready and willing to organize, fight back and, when need be, strike, for all its members.

Beau Hawk is a steward and a member of Teamsters Local 519

#ChattanoogaTN #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #TeamstersUnited