VW automakers overwhelmingly vote to join union

United Auto Workers won 73% of a vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, the union’s first victory in a Southern assembly factory owned by a foreign manufacturer. The UAW previously lost elections at the plant in 2014 and 2019.

The win gives UAW hope that it can achieve further victories at other southern auto plants, though it’s going to be tougher in the next elections at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where the fight has already gotten intense.

“They are going to have a much harder road in work sites where they are going to face aggressive management resistance and even community resistance than they faced in Chattanooga,” said Professor Harry Katz of Cornell University. “VW management did not aggressively seek to avoid unionization. Mercedes is going to be a good test. It’s the deeper South.”