Top Cut:
In a historic victory, Volkswagen (VW) workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to join the UAW on Friday, making it the first auto factory in the South to vote to organize since the 1940s.
Why It Matters:
An overwhelming majority of the 3,613 workers voted yes in a three-day election that drew high turnout. Against the backdrop of last summer’s intense Hollywood strikes, a recent sharp spike in National Labor Relations Board petition filings, coordinated health care worker walkouts and multiple other groundbreaking organizing victories, this win for VW workers is not only the biggest organizing success in years for the UAW—it’s also yet another piece of evidence that workers across industries and regions are fed up with not getting our fair share of corporate profits. Now that the election is over, the fight for a fair contract is next. Members are aiming for an agreement that secures more paid time off, more predictable scheduling, improved health care, retirement benefits and more.
“This election is big,” said Kelcey Smith, a worker in the paint department at Volkswagen, in a UAW press release. “People in high places told us good things can’t happen here in Chattanooga. They told us this isn’t the time to stand up, this isn’t the place. But we did stand up and we won. This is the time; this is the place. Southern workers are ready to stand up and win a better life.”
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