Volkswagen Plant Unionized In Texas

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.The union called the outcome a historic victory, and said it is the first time a southern auto plant outside the three Detroit automakers has been organized by the UAW.

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.“People are ready for change,” said Kelcey Smith, 48, who has worked in the VW plant’s paint shop for about a year, after leaving his job at an Amazon.com warehouse in town. “

We look forward to making history and bringing change throughout the entire South.”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.Next month, about 5,000 workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Ala., are expected to vote on whether to let in the UAW.

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.