ATLANTA — Some 4,300 Volkswagen autoworkers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote on union recognition April 17-19, aimed at bringing the United Auto Workers in to represent them. The election was set after union supporters filed what they called a “supermajority” of cards favoring the union with the National Labor Relations Board. This will be the third vote on union recognition at the plant, after unsuccessful attempts in 2014 and 2019.
The vote will be the first since the UAW launched a campaign to organize the many nonunion auto assembly plants following the 46-day strike last fall against the Big Three automakers, winning significant gains. Union officials report that more than 10,000 workers at Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz in Vance, Alabama, and other nonunion assembly plants have signed union cards over the last few months.
“A number of union supporters here have just filed unfair labor practices charges against Mercedes-Benz,” Kirk Garner, a supporter of the UAW organizing drive at the Mercedes-Benz plant, told the Militant March 26. “We’re still signing new people up.”
The workers are asking for an injunction stopping company harassment and disciplinary actions, including firing workers because they support the union. Some faced attack for pro-union comments they made in mandatory “captive audience” meetings organized by the company to pressure workers to vote no.
Union supporters turned out March 24 for an enthusiastic rally at which UAW President Shawn Fain spoke. “I didn’t come down here to tell you what all I’m going to do for you,” Fain told the crowd. “Everything you win in this fight will be because you won it.
“And the company knows it too,” he said. “That’s why Mercedes is pulling out every trick in the book.”