UAW says VW workers at Tennessee plant file for union election

Detroit- Volkswagen Workers at a Tennessee plant have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking to vote to join the United Auto Workers union announcement on Monday.

The union said “a vast majority of Volkswagen workers signed union cards in just 100 days,” marking a major milestone in the labor group’s organizing campaign at non-union auto plants in the United States.

The UAW has previously failed to organize foreign automakers in the United States. Recently, factories at Volkswagen and Nissan failed to gain the support needed to form unions. In 2019, VW workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant voted 833 to 776 to reject union representation.

The Chattanooga plant is Volkswagen’s only U.S. assembly plant and has more than 4,000 autoworkers who are eligible to vote for union representation.

Volkswagen confirmed it received notice that the UAW had submitted a petition to the NLRB to hold an election. The company said it respects workers’ democratic processes and rights to organize.

“We will fully support the NLRB vote so that every team member has the opportunity to vote privately on this important decision. The election schedule will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of the workplace environment in Chattanooga and here are some Best paying work environment. Job opportunities in the area,” the company said in an emailed statement.

Mass production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 and $32.40 an hour, with a four-year growth period before reaching the top wage, according to the company.

Volkswagen’s hourly wages are lower than what the United Auto Workers union negotiated with the Detroit automaker last year, with production workers’ hourly wages ranging from $25 to $36 an hour this year, including an estimated cost of living adjustment (COLA). ). By the end of the UAW contract, maximum wages for production workers are expected to exceed $42 an hour.

Volkswagen is one of 13 non-union automakers in the United States, and the UAW set its sights on Volkswagen late last year after signing a record-breaking contract with the Detroit automaker.

The event covers nearly 150,000 autoworkers from BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.