DETROIT (AP) — On the eve of a vote on union representation at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant, Gov. Bill Lee and five other Southern governors tell workers that voting for a union would endanger jobs.
About 4,300 workers at VW’s Chattanooga plant will begin voting Wednesday on representation from the United Auto Workers union. The vote totals are expected to be tabulated Friday evening by the National Labor Relations Board.
The union election is the first test of the UAW’s efforts to organize non-union auto plants nationwide after winning major raises last fall following a strike against Detroit automakers Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis.
The governors said in a statement Tuesday that they are working to create good-paying jobs in their states.
“We are seeing the impact of the Detroit Three strike, with automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs,” the statement said. “Putting our states’ businesses in this position is the last thing we want to do. »
Lee said in a statement that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the declaration. The offices of Abbott, Ivey, Kemp and Reeves confirmed their involvement, and McMaster posted the statement on its website.
The governors said they wanted to continue growing manufacturing in their states, but a successful union campaign would “stop that growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers.”
The UAW declined to comment.
After a series of strikes against Detroit automakers last year, UAW President Shawn Fain said he would simultaneously target more than a dozen non-union auto plants, including those run by Tesla , Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Honda and others.
This campaign concerns nearly 150,000 workers in factories mainly located in the South, where the union has so far had little success in recruiting new members.
Earlier this month, a majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, filed paperwork with the NLRB to vote on UAW representation.
The UAW’s agreements with Detroit automakers call for wage increases of 25% by the end of the contracts in April 2028. With the cost of living rising, workers will benefit from about 33%. increase for a maximum assembly wage of $42 per hour, or more. more than $87,000 per year, plus thousands of dollars in annual profit sharing.
VW said Tuesday its employees can earn more than $60,000 a year, not including an 8 percent attendance bonus. The company says it pays more than the area’s median household income.
Volkswagen said it respects workers’ rights to a democratic process and to determine who should represent their interests. “We will fully support an NLRB vote so that every team member has the opportunity to vote confidentially on this important decision,” the company said.
Some workers at the VW plant, which makes Atlas SUVs and ID.4 electric vehicles, said they want to have more say over hours, benefits, wages and more.
The union came close to representing VW factory workers in the previous two elections. In 2014 and 2019, workers narrowly rejected the creation of a plant-wide union under the UAW.
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