{"id":1383617,"date":"2023-12-10T14:26:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T14:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2023\/12\/volkswagen-chattanooga-union-drive-uaw-big-three-shawn-fain\/"},"modified":"2023-12-10T14:27:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T14:27:05","slug":"volkswagen-workers-hope-to-launch-the-uaws-next-winning-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/12\/10\/volkswagen-workers-hope-to-launch-the-uaws-next-winning-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen Workers Hope to Launch the UAW\u2019s Next Winning Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

After its landmark strike against the Big Three, the UAW placed thirteen nonunion automakers on notice. The first of these drives has just gone public, with 1,000 workers signing union cards at a Volkswagen plant that\u2019s twice resisted unionization.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Members of the United Auto Workers on strike in Flint, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Today, workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, assembly plant announced their third bid to unionize plant-wide with the United Auto Workers (UAW).<\/p>\n

Riding the momentum of its strike of the Big Three automakers, the UAW now wants to double its numbers in the auto industry by adding 150,000 workers at companies that have long avoided unionization. Thirteen nonunion automakers are on notice: Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Volkswagen (VW), and electric vehicle producers Rivian, Tesla, and Lucid.<\/p>\n

The union says it has been inundated with calls and online sign-ups by workers at these firms. The Volkswagen drive is the first to go public, after one thousand workers signed union cards.<\/p>\n

The UAW\u2019s two previous attempts to organize the full Chattanooga plant fell short narrowly. In 2014, workers lost by eighty-six votes<\/a>. In 2019, the union came even closer, losing by just fifty-seven votes<\/a> with 93 percent turnout. There were 1,700 workers at the plant then. Some 3,800 workers today build the Atlas and Cross Sport SUVs, as well as the electric ID.4.<\/p>\n

In 2015, a smaller group of skilled trades workers won<\/a> their election by a vote of 108 to 44, joining UAW Local 42, which had formed<\/a> as a minority union following the 2014 loss. But the company refused to negotiate with the smaller unit, delaying in the courts. The UAW quietly jettisoned the effort, filing instead for the full unit in 2019.<\/p>\n

After the 2019 defeat, workers kept the flame of organizing alive, meeting regularly and running a petition for the right to use their paid time off outside the company’s annual weeklong maintenance shutdown.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Why Now?<\/h2>\n \n

\u201cYou either keep pushing or die,\u201d Steve Cochran, a skilled trades worker in the battery plant\u2019s maintenance department, told<\/a> NPR in October. Cochran was the president of the minority union, UAW Local 42.<\/p>\n

The previous VW campaigns came while the UAW was on the defensive and often under attack publicly. Cochran told NPR how outside antiunion groups tried to smear the union drive in 2019 by tying the organizing to the FBI’s raid of the home of UAW President Gary Jones, who was later convicted of embezzling union funds and tax evasion.<\/p>\n