Republican governors from six states have issued a statement warning residents against unionization as employees at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant prepare for a vote to decide whether they will join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
On April 16, one day before the vote was scheduled, the state leaders wrote that further unionization in the South would deter businesses from opening facilities in the region.
“The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity. Unionization would certainly put our state’s jobs in jeopardy.” The governors of Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina signed the statement.
Overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the vote at the Chatanooga Volkswagen factory starts today and concludes this Friday. Officials expect to publish results before the weekend. The vote comes after months of campaigning by the UAW, which is hoping to leverage its victory against Detroit-Three automakers last year to spur unionization at facilities across the U.S.
In late March, the UAW announced that a supermajority of the 4,300 employees at Volkswagen’s plant had signed union authorization cards and that the NLRB would hold an official secret ballot vote in April.
Out of all sites targeted by the labor organization, its efforts at the Chatanooga factory seem to have produced the swiftest results, with roughly 30% of the German automaker’s American workforce confirming support for unionization after just two weeks of campaigning. The UAW claims to have secured more than 10,000 cards since last October.
