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Saturday, April 20, 2024

The UAW gets another. Tennessee VW workers overwhelmingly vote to unionize. They saw Detroit 3 strike gains that UAW attained. They wanted theirs.

 AP report, carried by Milwaukee Times:

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers union Friday in a historic first test of the UAW’s renewed effort to organize nonunion factories.

The union wound up getting 2,628 votes, or 73% of the ballots cast, compared with only 985 who voted no in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board.

Both sides have five business days to file objections to the election, the NLRB said. If there are none, VW and the union must “begin bargaining in good faith.”

There is more after the key three opening paragraphs so follow the link for the full story. One further quote:

Twice in recent years, workers at the Chattanooga plant have rejected union membership in plantwide votes. Most recently, they handed the UAW a narrow defeat in 2019 as federal prosecutors were breaking up a bribery-and-embezzlement scandal at the union.

But this time, they voted convincingly for the UAW, which is operating under new leadership directly elected by members for the first time and basking in a successful confrontation with Detroit’s major automakers.

The union’s pugnacious new president, Shawn Fain, was elected on a platform of cleaning up after the scandal and turning more confrontational with automakers. An emboldened Fain, backed by President Joe Biden, led the union in a series of strikes last fall against Detroit’s automakers that resulted in lucrative new contracts.

Yeah, Tennessee VW workers saw and craved. After earlier "show me why" rejection, they were shown why. 

("Direct election" IS a good thing with no intermediary meddling. Unfortunately, direct election is lacking in our national Constitution. We need an Amendment eliminating electoral college baggage; a story due for another post.)

Bonus, for the follow-up effort, Gerry Rafferty - Next Time.

Extra bonus honoring Tennessee good senseTennessee Jed