DETROIT — A Volkswagen plant nestled against dense forests and Interstate 75 on the southern border of Tennessee has become a battleground over worker representation that could sway the future of the American auto industry.
The United Auto Workers is attempting for the third time to organize the 4,300 eligible workers in Chattanooga, where VW assembles the ID.4 electric SUV. The vote at VW’s only nonunion plant globally is scheduled to begin on Wednesday and conclude late on Friday.
The UAW, which has been shrinking, sees the VW vote as the first of a series that would spread unions beyond Detroit-owned automakers and into the U.S. South, which has been unfriendly terrain for organized labor. A Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, Alabama, may hold a vote soon.
The environment has never been better for the UAW. Public support for unions has soared in recent years and last autumn U.S. President Joe Biden walked picket lines outside Detroit, where the union secured record contracts with the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis.
“This is the best chance they’ve ever had,” Cornell University labor professor Art Wheaton said of the UAW.
For decades, the union has struck out at southern auto plants. In addition to two narrow losses at VW previously, it sustained three more significant misses at southern factories owned by Nissan.
Pablo Di Si, head of Volkswagen’s North American business, told Reuters last month the company will remain neutral ahead of the vote.
Union-backing workers at the VW plant hope this time to win, and say they want better pay and benefits and improved plant safety.
Kelcey Smith, who joined a union organizing committee after being hired about a year ago, said the union’s deals following a six-week strike against the Detroit automakers inspired him. The UAW won record contracts, including double-digit pay increases and the return of cost-of-living adjustments.
Smith wants some of those perks himself.
“It showed not only me, but the rest of the country and the world, that if you just come together as a collective group, you can bring change for yourself and your families,” he said.
Some employees at the plant say the risks of organizing outweigh the potential rewards, worrying that increased labor costs for VW could endanger job security.
Anti-UAW organizations have also made their voices heard, with billboards near the Chattanooga plant urging passersby to visit a Web page that spotlights…
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