A VW EV ID.4 cross-over at Volkswagen of America plant in Chattanooga, TN, June 8, 2022.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Volkswagen employees at a plant in Tennessee have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to hitch the United Auto Employees, the union announced Monday.
The filing comes after a “supermajority of Volkswagen employees have signed union cards in only 100 days,” the union said – marking a significant milestone within the labor group’s organizing drives of non-unionized auto plants within the U.S.
The UAW has previously failed to arrange foreign-based automakers within the U.S. Most recently, plants with Volkswagen and Nissan fell in need of the support needed to unionize. In 2019, VW employees on the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in an 833-776 vote.
The Chattanooga plant is Volkswagen’s only U.S. assembly plant and employs over 4,000 autoworkers who could be eligible to vote for union representation.
VW confirmed receiving a notice that the UAW has filed a petition with the NLRB to carry an election. The corporate said it respects its employees’ right to a democratic process and to arrange.
“We are going to fully support an NLRB vote so every team member has a likelihood to vote in privacy on this essential decision. The election timeline will probably be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is happy with our working environment in Chattanooga that gives a few of one of the best paying jobs in the world,” the corporate said in an emailed statement.
VW production employees on the plant earn between $23.40 per hour and $32.40 per hour, with a four-year grow-in period to top wages, in accordance with the corporate.
VW’s hourly wages are lower than those the UAW negotiated last 12 months with the Detroit automakers, which this 12 months range from about $25 an hour to $36 an hour for production employees, including estimated cost of living adjustments, or COLA. By the tip of the UAW contracts, top wages are expected to surpass $42 an hour for production employees.
VW is one in every of 13 non-union automakers within the U.S. that the UAW set its sights on late last 12 months after securing record contracts with the Detroit automakers.
The drive covers nearly 150,000 autoworkers across BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
