The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is now committed to spending $40 million on its labor organization campaign, which is currently underway at non-union automaker facilities across the U.S.
The UAW said the funds would be distributed over the next two years and would allow it to include electric vehicle battery manufacturers in its list of targeted companies. In a press release, the organization said its board voted in favor of the new spending commitment due to an “explosion” in unionization interest from automotive and battery manufacturing employees.
After the six-week strike targeting Detroit-Three facilities in late 2023, the UAW started efforts to organize labor at multiple non-union automaker facilities, fueled by the historic pay and benefit increases it had just won. Many of the factories targeted in the group’s campaign are operated by import brands and are located in Southern “right-to-work” states.
But in the months following the campaign’s launch, the group has kept updates to a minimum. This January, UAW officials confirmed that 30% of employees at Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama plant had signed union authorization cards. One month later, the organization announced that a majority of Volkswagen’s Tennessee workforce had done the same. In the press release announcing its spending commitment, published this week, the union now says it has received more than 10,000 cards from workers since the start of its campaign and claims that unionization support at Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz is close behind that of VW.
Earlier this week, the UAW threatened to go on strike at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant if the automaker failed to present an agreeable contract, now five months overdue, to local union officials before Friday, February 23. With two days to spare, the organization confirmed it had reached a tentative agreement with the company on Wednesday, nullifying the threat of a strike. A ratification vote is scheduled for next week at the plant, which was also targeted during last year’s strike.
