The Republicans in the Southern state have worked long and hard to make their states as union unfriendly as they could. They thought they had their states locked up tight. Then the UAW, led by President Shawn Fain, came to Tennessee. They locked arms with the men and women at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee and showed them what solidarity looks like:
Hourly workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee overwhelming voted to join the United Auto Workers late Friday, a major breakthrough in the union’s effort to organize workers at plants nationwide.
Shortly after 11 pm ET on Friday the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that oversees such votes, announced that 73% of the 3,600 workers at the plant who cast ballots had voted in favor of joining the union. There was an 84% turnout among eligible voters.
“This election is big,” said Kelcey Smith, a worker in the paint department at Volkswagen, in a UAW statement. “This is the time; this is the place. Southern workers are ready to stand up and win a better life.”
You can feel the emotions running high, both with the VW workers and the UAW members as they make the announcement:
A lot of credit goes to Shawn Fain for this well-strategized move. Volkswagen was more neutral than some other automakers might have been because of the strong union presence in their homeland of Germany. And the UAW struck quickly while they still had the momentum from their strikes and big victories against the Big Three in the past year.
Judging from the tweet above, it appears that the UAW already plan to continue their march through the South and the Mercedes plant in Alabama. It wouldn’t be surprising if other unions follow on the UAW’s wake and try to make their own inroads through the Southern states.
But for now, the party this weekend is in Chattanooga. Good job, folks. Keep moving forward.
