Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers late Friday, giving the union a decisive foothold in the historically anti-union South.
Nearly three quarters of the workers voted to support the UAW, according to the final results from the National Labor Review Board. Of the 4,326 workers eligible to vote, more than 3,600 casts ballots over the three-day election.
As the votes were counted Friday night, first a trickle — and later, a wave — of bold, red T-shirts with white lettering peppered the union hall Friday evening at I.B.E.W. Local 175.
Joseph McMullen walked into the hall around 9 p.m. expecting many of his Volkswagen colleagues to have voted to establish a union. But he was not prepared for the overwhelming pro-union support displayed on a projection screen.
“I think that matters,” said McMullen, an Alabama native who works in the quality department. “It sends a message.”
When the news of the final victory was announced, members of the crowd jumped, cheered and hugged. Minutes later, UAW president Shawn Fain arrived to congratulate the VW workers.
“Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly, before we announced, that you can’t win in the South,” Fain told the cheering crowd. “But you all said, watch this. You all moved the mountain.”
The victory came despite strong opposition from a coalition of six Southern governors, including Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee who urged workers to reject unions in a letter on Tuesday.
Once the victory was announced, President Joe Biden responded directly to those governors in a statement.
“Let me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose,” Biden said.
The UAW had tried and failed to organize the VW plant twice before, once in 2013 and again in 2019.
This election was part of a major campaign by the UAW to win new members in the South, a region that historically has been hostile to organized labor. In recent years, car makers have been shifting from the Midwest to the South, with many foreign automakers and upstart companies like Tesla and Rivian opening plants in the region.
After years of scandals and declining membership, the UAW has seen its fortunes rise under the leadership of Fain, who was elected in 2023. Last year, the UAW staged a strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis that led to a favorable new contract for 145,000 workers.
The UAW’s ability to organize Southern workers will be tested again in May, when workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will vote on whether they also want to join the union.
“This is a new day and we’re just getting started,” Fain said.
Todd A. Price is a regional reporter in the South for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.
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