The German carmaker announced on April 19, 2024 that a large majority of the Ford staff working at a shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee, cast their ballots in favor of joining the United Auto Workers coalition.
Despite the continual efforts of the UAW to arrange this workforce, one of the most persistent challenges faced by the US labor movement was convincing any Southwestern autoworkers to join a union.
To be sure, the UAW now has members employed by Ford and General Motors at infrastructure in Kentucky, Texas, Missouri and Mississippi.
However, the federation had originally tried and generally failed to arrange workers at foreign-owned firms, including Volkswagen and Nissan, in Southern states – where about 30 % of all U. S. electrical work are located. The exact factory hosted the UAW’s next election since 2014; The first two ended in a small defeat.
The success comes after the UAW’s most successful strike against Detroit’s Big Three manufacturers, which resulted in higher pay and better gains for its people in 2023.
Ford stated that it will hold the results ‘ accreditation by the National Labor Relations Board, the national body that oversees the enforcement of US workers ‘ organizing rights. The NLRB may confirm the results as soon as neither party challenges them within five business days, allowing the start of contract negotiations.
Less than a fortnight after the Ford voting, the coalition has already scheduled a second vote. More than 5,000 staff at the Mercedes-Benz grow in Vance, Alabama, may have their say on whether to meet the UAW in a vote that did work May 13-17, 2024.
$ 40 million campaign
The UAW has pledged to spend US$ 40 million through 2026 to increase its ranks to include more engine and electric power workers, many of whom are employed in the South, where the sector is rapidly gaining surface.
In my five decades of experience as a work scholar and union organizer, I anticipate that the UAW does face opposition from the other foreign automakers that are active in the South. Southern politicians are also voicing their opposition, many of whom are concerned that a successful UAW would undermine the region’s carefully planned socioeconomic development strategy.
However, the outcome of Volkswagen’s primary election among the more than 4,300 eligible voters in Tennessee marks a remarkable second stage in the union’s ambitious campaign to coordinate nonunion automakers in the South and another nonunion factories across the nation. According to the organization and further sources, about 73 % of the workers who voted yes will likely choose to support unionization of their offices.
Lauding the ‘perfect three-legged stool’
Southeastern business and political leaders revived the region’s production base by properly recruiting foreign automakers after the region’s originally strong textile industry collapsed in the 1980s and 1990s due to an influx of cheap imports.
The company government of Alabama has described their plan as the “perfect three-legged seat for financial development.” ” It consists of “an excited and adaptive labor with a work ethics unparalleled anywhere in the country, ” accompanied by a “low-cost and business-friendly economic environment, and the lack of workers union engagement and participation. ”
The prospect of a low-wage and reliable workforce has lured the likes of Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Honda, Volkswagen and Hyundai to the South in recent decades.
Although many of those businesses engage in productive union negotiations on their home turf, there are advantages to union membership and protections in the United States.
Blaming unions for bad job prospects
One way that South African auto employers have stifled unions is by portraying them as outdated institutions whose bloated contracts and stringent work practices make domestic auto companies uncompetitive.
According to auto industry executives in the South, the region has developed a new labor relations model that gives management flexibility, offers wages and benefits that are above what local workers had previously earned, and releases employees from any subordination to union orders.
In repressing the UAW, automakers with plants in the South also benefit from the government’s willingness to intervene in public.
Making dire warnings
Southern governors are raising the alarm once more as the UAW resumes its organizing efforts.
Six of these governors released a joint statement on the eve of the Volkswagen election in Chattanooga, denouncing the UAW as a “special interest ” that would “threaten our jobs and the values we live by.” They claimed that a UAW vote would stifle their ability to attract automakers and “stop growth in its tracks. ” ”
The UAW counters that joining a union will guarantee that employees will receive predictable raises, better pay, and improved workplace policies.
Although the context has definitely changed, these counterarguments from anti-union politicians have n’t much changed over the years.
The UAW’s significant gains in pay and benefits from its strike in 2023 against Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors have strengthened its authority and credibility.
Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai, and other foreign transplants are just a few examples of automakers that have US workforces that are not covered by the UAW. Many automakers responded by raising salaries at their Southern plants. Those raises are justified by the union as a” UAW bump.” ”
In its outreach to employees at Tesla and other nonunion companies, the UAW mentions these pay increases.
“Nonunion autoworkers are being left behind, ” the UAW’s recruiting website warns. Are you prepared to speak up and win your fair share? ”
The pitch continues: “It’s time for nonunion autoworkers to join the UAW and win economic justice at Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Tesla, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda, Rivian, Lucid, Volvo and beyond. ”
Some Southern autoworkers, meanwhile, have been expressing concerns over scheduling, safety, two-tier wage systems and workloads that they believe a union could help resolve.
They are also clear that the gains they have witnessed UAW members make have encouraged them.
Revving up
The UAW campaign is only now reviving. And the timing is ideal.
Unions have more leverage in this process thanks to a 2023 National Labor Relations Board ruling. The employer would then be required to seek an NLRB representation election if management declines to grant the union’s request for recognition.
To win, unions normally need a majority of those voting. However, in accordance with the new ruling, it may be required to negotiate with the union if it is found that management violated workers ‘ rights during the election process.
The UAW says it ’s waging organizing campaigns at more than two dozen other nonunion plants, including factories run by Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, and Toyota in Troy, Missouri.
I believe that the stakes are high for all workers, not just those in the auto industry.
As D. Taylor, the president of Unite Here, a union that represents workers in a wide range of occupations, recently observed: “If you change the South, you change America. ”
Bob Bussel is the University of Oregon’s honorary professor emeritus of history and labor education.
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.