I'm a Bit Late on This Good News

Workers at VW's Tennessee factory voted overwhelmingly to join the UAW.

The last two elections were close losses, but this time the union won by almost 3:1:

Workers at Volkswagen’s Tennessee factory voted to join the United Auto Workers, a landmark win for the 89-year-old union as it seeks to expand where it has struggled before, with foreign-owned factories in the South.

The UAW won in a landslide with 73% of workers who cast ballots in favor of union representation. About 84% of the plant’s 4,300 eligible workers participated.

That's a blowout, despite the veiled threats from Republican politicians across the nation. 

A lot of the credit has to go to UAW President Shawn Fain, who since his election by the first direct vote for President in UAW history, has made good on his promise to both root out corruption and be more militant in his path.

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The vote is a breakthrough for the labor group, whose membership has shrunk by about three-quarters since the 1970s, to less than 400,000 workers last year. UAW leaders have hitched their growth ambitions to organizing nonunion auto factories, many of which are in southern states where the Detroit-based labor group has failed several times and antiunion sentiment abounds.

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UAW officials and workers hope the win will serve as a springboard for organizing drives at car plants owned by more than a dozen automakers with nonunion U.S. workforces, including Toyota Motor, Tesla, BMW and Kia. The union is vying to fortify its bargaining clout within the industry and boost its ranks, as the Detroit automakers have closed factories and downsized their U.S. workforces. 

A lot of this comes from the UAW's success in last year's big strike against all of the Big 3 automakers.

They demonstrated that they could fight management and win, which means that they could point directly to the direct benefits that they provided to their members only a few months ago.

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The Chattanooga vote is another win for UAW President Shawn Fain, who took over the long-embattled union 13 months ago vowing to root out corruption and expand the labor group’s ranks. 

Fain recruited outsiders from across the labor movement to deploy fresh negotiating tactics—including an unconventional six-week strike—during the UAW’s joint negotiations last year with General Motors, Ford Motor and Jeep-maker Stellantis. Alongside that effort, the union had been mobilizing an expansive organizing drive, seeking to leverage its biggest contract gains in decades to win support from auto workers across the country.

The UAW circulated a video of Fain addressing VW workers at a party following the voting results. He said the union would soon engage VW in contract talks while moving on to organizing drives at more nonunion factories.

“The real fight begins now,” he shouted into a microphone. “The real fight is getting your fair share.”

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Several factors helped swing the results in the UAW’s favor this time.

Some VW workers said they were impressed by the big gains the union won last year in contracts it negotiated at GM, Ford and Stellantis, including a 25% wage increase over four-and-1/2 years and annual inflation adjustments. 

I think that it is likely that the next unionization attempt in the south will be a failure, it took them 3 tries in Chattanooga, but success breeds success.

The next challenge is the negotiations with VW.  They need to get the wage gap with the Big 3 automakers closed.  If they do that, success will breed success.