Workers at Volkswagen Tennessee facility have submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board on March 18, asking for a vote to join the United Auto Workers.
Volkswagen workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee plant have signed union cards, achieving a “supermajority” in the United Auto Workers’ efforts to organize nonunionized facilities. However, VW employees at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in 2019.
Over 4,000 autoworkers at VW’s Chattanooga factory, the company’s only assembly facility in the U.S., are qualified to vote for union representation. VW supports the democratic process and the freedom to unionize its employees. The corporation stated, “We favor an NLRB vote to allow each team member to cast a private ballot in this crucial decision. The NLRB will set the election timeline.”
VW pays its production workers between $23.40 and $32.40 per hour, with a four-year grow-in period to peak rates. The UAW negotiated hourly rates with the Detroit manufacturers last year, which are higher than VW production workers earn. These earnings, which include anticipated cost-of-living adjustments, or COLA, range from roughly $25 to $36 per hour. Top earnings for production workers are predicted to rise above $42 per hour by the time the UAW contracts expire.
After obtaining record contracts with the Detroit automakers late last year, the UAW turned its attention to 13 nonunion automakers in the U.S., including VW.
The UAW’s drive affects approximately 150,000 autoworkers from the following automakers: Nissan, Rivian, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
