UAW moves to hold unionization vote at Volkswagen plant in Tennessee

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The United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced Monday that workers at Volkswagen's assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will hold a unionization vote after the UAW secured historic contracts for workers at Detroit's Big Three automakers last year.

The UAW said a supermajority of eligible Volkswagen workers signed union cards to call for the election at the Chattanooga plant. The facility is Volkswagen's only assembly plant in the U.S. and employs about 4,100 workers who make the Atlas and ID.4. The union added that it "is the only Volkswagen plant globally with no form of employee representation."

The pending unionization vote comes after UAW President Shawn Fain vowed that the union would "pull out all the stops" to organize workers at non-union automakers like Volkswagen, Tesla, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes and others in the wake of securing record-setting contracts for UAW workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis.

Buoyed by that success, Fain launched a first-of-its-kind campaign to organize the entire non-union auto assembly sector in the U.S. at 13 automakers after previous efforts by the UAW to organize non-union automakers in recent years have failed, including at VW's Chattanooga plant.

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The UAW said auto assembly workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant will hold a vote on unionization. (Mark Elias/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)

In 2019, VW workers at the plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote. Previous votes to organize Nissan auto plants in Mississippi and Tennessee also failed by wide margins.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
VWAGY	VOLKSWAGEN AG	8.7535	+0.08	+0.96%

Volkswagen told FOX Business in a statement, "We respect our workers' right to a democratic process and to determine who should represent their interests. We will fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a chance to vote in privacy in this important decision."

"The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our working environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best paying jobs in the area," Volkswagen's statement continued.

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UAW President Shawn Fain launched a push to unionize all non-union auto assembly workers in the U.S. after securing a record contract for UAW members at the Big Three. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

Volkswagen said in November that it would raise the pay of its factory workers in Tennessee by 11%, joining several other foreign automakers that announced significant pay and compensation improvements following the UAW's contract with the Big Three automakers.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
F	FORD MOTOR CO.	11.18	+0.38	+3.47%
GM	GENERAL MOTORS CO.	58.53	+2.85	+5.12%
STLA	STELLANTIS NV	13.04	+0.20	+1.52%
TM	TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.	174.40	+1.02	+0.59%
TSLA	TESLA INC.	352.56	+12.92	+3.80%

It remains to be seen whether those pay and benefit hikes will be enough to fend off the UAW's unionization push at non-union automakers.

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Volkswagen said last year it will give auto workers at its Tennessee plant a raise. (Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via / Getty Images)

The union said earlier this month that over 30% of workers at a Toyota factory in Missouri are seeking to join the union and last month indicated that a majority of hourly workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Alabama have signed union authorization cards.

Reuters contributed to this report.