Workers at Volkswagen‘s only U.S. plant have moved to hold union elections after a supermajority of employees signed cards with the United Auto Workers.
The UAW announced Monday that workers at the automaker’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, factory filed with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections. If the vote goes through, it will be the first union election since the UAW began its effort to organize workers at nonunion factories.
The VW facility employs about 4,000 workers.
Plant workers mentioned safety as a motivator for supporting the UAW‘s unionization effort.
“We are a positive force in the plant. When we win our union, we’ll be able to bargain for a safer workplace so people can stay on the job and the company can benefit from our experience,” production member Yolanda Peoples said in a UAW statement. “When my father retired as a UAW member, he had something to fall back on. VW workers deserve the same.”
In 2019, VW workers in Chattanooga voted against UAW representation in an 833-776 vote.
After the union successfully negotiated landmark contracts with the Detroit automakers last year, UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union would go after the largest nonunion shops in the U.S.
Since then, the UAW has started union drives at Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Volvo, Lucid, Mazda, Subaru and Honda.
While none of the other plants where the union has focused have garnered a supermajority of support, the UAW has made significant progress at Mercedes’ Alabama plant. The labor organization announced last month that over 50% of the facility’s workers have signed union cards.