Last fall, the United Automobile Workers union won major wage increases at Detroit automakers, and the impact quickly spread to nonunion auto plants throughout the South.
Afterwards, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan, Hyundai and Tesla increased wages for their own hourly workers in the United States, none of whom are unionized. On production lines in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and elsewhere, these wage increases were dubbed a “UAW boost.”
Now 4,300 workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will test whether the union can achieve an even bigger boost. Voting to join the UAW begins Wednesday, and the union’s chances of victory appear high. According to the UAW, about 70 percent of workers had said they would vote “yes” before the union called for the vote
“I think our chances are great,” said Kelcey Smith, 48, who has worked in the paint department at the VW plant for a year and is a member of a committee working to build support for the UAW. “The energy is high. I think we’ll do it.”
Volkswagen has outlined reasons it believes a union at the plant is not necessary, including above-average pay for the Chattanooga region. But she also said she encourages all workers to cast their vote and decide for themselves in the election, which ends on Friday. “No one will lose their job because they voted for or against the union,” said a company spokesman.
The operations extend beyond the Tennessee plant, Volkswagen’s only US plant. A victory there would provide additional impetus to the UAW’s push to expand its presence to the more than two dozen non-union auto plants in the United States. Most of these are located in the Southern states, where union resistance has historically been strong and where right-to-work laws make it difficult for unions to organize workers.
The UAW’s chances beyond the Volkswagen plant are unclear. Japanese and South Korean automakers have shown more forceful opposition to the UAW than German companies. Tesla boss Elon Musk has spoken out against the UAW several times in recent years.
And on Tuesday, the Republican governors of six states – Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – condemned the UAW action, saying in a statement they were “extremely concerned about the union campaign fueled by misinformation and fear-mongering.” UAW has brought to our states.”
“We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to create good-paying jobs in our states,” the governors said. “These jobs have become an integral part of the automotive industry. Unionization would certainly jeopardize our states’ jobs.”
The VW vote will be followed by another election – so far unscheduled – at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, where a majority of workers have signed up to support the union, according to the UAW.
The UAW says victories at VW, Mercedes and other plants would bring higher wages, better benefits and higher living standards for tens of thousands of workers, many in the country’s poorer counties.
Full-scale unionization at Southern factories would also help level the playing field that has been pitted against Detroit’s three unionized manufacturers for nearly half a century – General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company. By operating non-union factories, foreign companies have a significant labor cost advantage over their U.S.-based competitors.
“It would be a revolution for the UAW and for the auto industry,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has followed the UAW for more than three decades. “It would break the glass ceiling for unions in the South and mean more purchasing power for the working class in this region.”
The UAW has established several heavy-duty truck and bus factories in the South, but has tried for decades to do the same at auto plants, which are typically larger.
In these efforts, the UAW was hampered by a questionable track record and reputation. Over nearly 30 years, Detroit automakers have closed dozens of plants and eliminated tens of thousands of hourly jobs, despite the UAW’s objections. Some industry executives blame high union wages in part for driving GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy in 2009. In addition, the union was hit by corruption scandals that resulted in prison sentences for two former presidents and about a dozen other high-ranking UAW officials.
Over the past two years, however, the UAW has undergone a transformation. Financial reforms and transparency measures overseen by a federal monitor have helped stamp out corruption. In the union’s first direct election, members elected a resolute president, Shawn Fain. In contract negotiations with GM, Ford and Stellantis last year, Mr. Fain took a new approach, selecting all three companies as strike targets but closing only select plants, putting pressure on the companies without crippling them or the entire U.S. harming the economy.
After six weeks, the union reached contracts that increased the top wage by 25 percent to more than $40 an hour. The wages of workers at the bottom of the wage scale will rise to the top wage within three years instead of eight. Some will see their salary double. A worker working 40 hours per week at the top wage earns about $83,000 per year. In recent years, profit-sharing bonuses have increased by approximately $9,000 to $14,000.
In addition, the new contracts provide for wage adjustments if the cost of living rises due to inflation, improved pensions and retirement benefits, and more paid time off. UAW employees have also long received company-paid health care with no deductibles or copays.
Hourly wages at non-union auto plants used to be less than $20 and hovered around $32. The “UAW boom” increased the range to around $22 to $35. Volkswagen said its workers typically earned about $60,000 a year. (According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average annual wage for all occupations in the Chattanooga area was $54,480 as of May.)
Seizing the momentum of the Big Three negotiations, Mr. Fain said the union would spend $40 million by 2026 to organize at plants owned by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda , Volvo and Tesla, as well as others owned by electric vehicle start-ups Rivian and Lucid Motors.
VW workers who support the UAW say their wages are pretty good for Tennessee, but point 300 miles north to Louisville, Kentucky, where Ford pays many workers more than $40 an hour to build the Expedition sport utility vehicle to build that competes with the VW Atlas in Chattanooga.
“If Ford can pay so much, why can’t Volkswagen pay us the same?” said Isaac Meadows, 40, a father of six who has worked at the VW factory for 14 months. “We are worth more than they pay us.”
There are concerns that go beyond hourly wages. Employees must use paid time off if they want to be paid during two plant closure periods around the year-end and summer holidays.
Once he covers the shutdowns with vacation days, Mr. Meadows said, he is left with about 16 hours of paid vacation for the rest of the year to cover any family events or sick days. “I miss my children’s dances, sporting events and family gatherings,” he said. “I miss a lot because I have to work.”
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2024-04-17 12:59:29
www.nytimes.com
