UAW’s Fain says VW victory shows union ‘can win anywhere’
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said the union’s organizing victory at Volkswagen AG’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, shows the union “can win anywhere.”
The plant that builds the Volkswagen ID.4, Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport on Friday became the first foreign-owned automaker organized in the South by the Detroit-based union. Of the almost 84% of eligible workers at the plant who voted last week, 73% supported UAW representation, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
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The results, if not appealed this week, would send the German automaker to the bargaining table with the union — to get a contract “as soon as possible,” Fain said. His goal is to align the expiration of a future contract around May 1, 2028, the same as the new contract deadlines with the Detroit Three and the same date the union has urged the greater labor movement to coalesce around.
“Working-class people have to come together in this world,” he told The Detroit News in a phone interview. “The corporate class came together years ago, and they went global, and they fight with workers globally. They manipulate workers globally, and they pit worker against worker globally, and it’s time that we unify as workers, and we pull our power, and we take these companies on globally as they have done to us over the last 40 years.”
The winning UAW vote came despite opposition from Republican governors, right-to-work proponents and a minority of workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant, where two earlier unionization votes were defeated. Volkswagen referred to a statement from Friday saying that it’s awaiting the NLRB’s certification of the vote. It didn’t indicate whether it would appeal.
Fain declined to detail priorities in negotiating a contract with Volkswagen or how close an agreement could be to the contracts with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV. The union’s next steps include assembling a bargaining committee and hearing from the members what they want to see in a deal. Fain noted insufficient paid time off was an issue he’s heard repeatedly. VW this year added two unplanned paid time-off days for a total of five.
“You want to let the members make those decisions,” Fain said about potential demands.
The Volkswagen win gears up the union for its next organizing challenge outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where roughly 5,000 workers at Mercedes-Benz’s Vance assembly plant and Woodstock battery plant will vote May 13-17 on whether to join the union.
“It gives the Mercedes workers the courage to know now that it can happen, and that it is possible,” Fain said about the impact of the Volkswagen result. “The workers at Mercedes to me are fed up. It’s going to really give workers all over a lot of hope. It’s lifted them all up, and I believe that you’re going to see the numbers increase and see more people signing cards to want to join and get some control of their work lives.”
Mercedes previously said in a statement sent by spokesperson Andrea Berg it respects its employees’ decision on whether to unionize, that it seeks to offer a safe work environment to build vehicles, and that it believes “open and direct communication with our Team Members is the best path forward to ensure continued success.”
Although Fain suggested the Volkswagen win last week provided evidence of the UAW’s ability to organize in areas where it had failed in the past, experts say those close calls in the past, the German automaker’s other plants around the globe having employee representation, and its partnership with unions elsewhere on its supervisory board make it a lower barrier to entry than some others. Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. have reputations for treating workers well, and Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk publicly said he doesn’t like unions.
