Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Vote On UAW Membership This Week

Update, April 17, 2024: This story has been updated to include a joint statement from six southern governors opposing UAW membership at plants in their states.

Yolanda Peoples is ready to get the vote started. The 13-year veteran and her co-workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee begin voting Wednesday on whether to join the UAW.

“Everybody was just ready to get the game to a vote, and once they announced the vote, everybody's like, yes,” Peoples said in an interview.

If enough of the more than 3,000 workers vote yes during the poll that ends Friday, they’ll become the first at a foreign-owned plant in the U.S. to join the union.

The UAW has failed at every attempt so far to win similar votes at a so-called transplant. But in an interview, UAW President Shawn Fain said he’s sure that string is about to end.

“They're fed up with being left behind, not just in this country—in this world,” Fain said. “Knowing the workers down there, speaking with them on multiple occasions, I'm very confident that they're going to vote for union.”

A leading labor expert mirrors Fain’s confidence that the vote at VW will finally go the UAW’s way in part because of Fain’s big wins during last fall’s contract negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers and due to a shift in the culture.

“I think it truly is a moment for the UAW,” said Harley Shaiken, labor expert and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview. “Unions are at near record popularity with Americans as shown in relatively recent polls. Gallup stands out, where 67% of those polled, I think, last September, had a favorable opinion of unions. In particular, younger workers have a very favorable impression of the unions. So that's one dimension. Second, unions have shown in the last few years that they really do deliver.”

Peoples ruefully remembers the last time workers at the plant had an opportunity to vote on UAW representation. That was in 2019. The vote failed.

While a change in the workforce has brought it more of those who had either worked in union shops or are familiar with the ramifications of union members, Peoples said there’s one obstacle that hasn't changed.

“The biggest thing is outside forces that are coming in and trying to persuade employees to vote no. They have no basis whatsoever trying to determine how we live our lives,” said Peoples.

Outside forces this time around include governors of six southern states where non-union auto plants are located, issuing a sweeping joint statement Tuesday.

“The experience in our states is when employees have a direct relationship with their employers, that makes for a more positive working environment. They can advocate for themselves and what is important to them without outside influence. The UAW has come in making big promises to our constituents that they can’t deliver on. And we have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values,” the statement said in part.

“We want to keep good paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector here. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers,” the statement concluded.

It was signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee and Texas Gov. Abbott.

There’s always a gamble when you put an issue to a vote. The UAW has lost before and it could be on the short end again.

But this time around, a loss wouldn’t necessarily be devastating to the union, according to one labor expert.

“A defeat would be a setback, but Shawn Fain has earned a great deal of organizational capital because of his willingness to fight,” observed Marick Masters, professor of business in the Department of Management and Information Systems at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University in Detroit, in an interview conducted by email. “The membership would respond favorably if he took defeat with defiance and pledged to continue the organizing campaign while learning from past mistakes.”

Indeed, just as Volkswagen workers begin to cast their ballots, their counterparts at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to hold their own vote on UAW representation.

Jeremy Kimbrell, an organizer who has worked at Mercedes-Benz for 24-years, said support is building within the plant toward a successful vote.

“We got the majority of our workers signed up,” said Kimbrell in an interview. “We get cards signed every day.”

Fain said he plans to visit Chattanooga during the voting period to “be there” for the VW workers and hopefully, celebrate a victory.

Peoples and her co-workers just want the voting to begin, declaring, “Everybody's ready.”