Congratulations Volkswagen Workers On Making Labor History!
They said it could never happen. It happened.
You can’t unionize autoworkers in the South, they said.
Well, whoever “they” are, they were wrong. Because, on Friday, 73 percent of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted to become the first non-union auto plant to unionize in decades, and the first foreign-owned auto plant to unionize in the South, period.
This happened despite a union-busting campaign so fierce that even governors in the South got on board, sending out a letter last week warning workers not to organize, telling them that “The experience in our states is when employees have a direct relationship with their employers, that makes for a more positive working environment.”
Clearly, the employees didn’t think so.
This isn’t the first time the plant has held a union vote — votes were held in both 2014 and 2019, and both times, the workers voted against unionizing. But this time was different. In 2019, the UAW wasn’t doing so well. Several officials were accused of embezzling money and taking bribes from Fiat Chrysler executives. Then-UAW president Gary Jones stepped down in November of that year and was subsequently convicted of fraud, having conspired with several other officials to embezzle over $1 million from member dues. It is understandable that people might not have wanted to get involved under those circumstances.
But since then, Shawn Fain has become president — the first elected by direct vote from rank-and-file members rather than by being appointed by a group of elected officials within the union — and he has kicked some ass. Workers at the Volkswagen plant took notice, saw what workers got from the stand-up strikes at the big three automakers last year and decided they wanted some of that for themselves.
Via UAW:
“This election is big,” said Kelcey Smith, a worker in the paint department at Volkswagen. “People in high places told us good things can’t happen here in Chattanooga. They told us this isn’t the time to stand up, this isn’t the place. But we did stand up and we won. This is the time; this is the place. Southern workers are ready to stand up and win a better life.”
“We saw the big contract that UAW workers won at the Big Three and that got everybody talking,” said Zachary Costello, a trainer in VW’s proficiency room. “You see the pay, the benefits, the rights UAW members have on the job, and you see how that would change your life. That’s why we voted overwhelmingly for the union. Once people see the difference a union makes, there’s no way to stop them.”
“This is a movement for every blue-collar worker in America,” said Doug Snyder, a body worker at Volkswagen. “Our vote shows that workers everywhere want a better life on and off the job. Fair pay is important, but so is time with our families. So is a voice for safety in our plant. We’re looking forward to getting to the bargaining table with the company and winning a contract that makes things right at Volkswagen.”
Good for them! They deserve it — and they’re not the only ones. Mercedes workers in Alabama came out in huge numbers to demand a union vote and will be having their election May 13 to 17. It’s looking pretty good for them as well. It’s almost as if when people see unions getting workers better pay and benefits, they become impervious to union-busting nonsense about how the unions won’t do that. Because they can see the results and want those things for themselves.
Quite frankly, I think Shawn Fain’s showmanship has been a driving force in this fight. The fact that he’s out there, making a big deal of things, getting people to pay attention to the union, to support the workers and the strikes, is just good advertising. You can tell people all day long, you know, “We can do this for you,” but if they’re not seeing it in action, they’re not going to buy it.
The politicians in these states somehow believe that just because these people live in the South, that means they don’t want quality healthcare, fair wages, more time to spend with their families. That’s not a thing. All workers want that, regardless of where they live. The thing that is “a thing” is that people are scared that if they ask for what they deserve, they will have everything taken away and these companies will just take their jobs and go somewhere else.
But that’s why it’s important to make it so they don’t really have the ability to do that.
Over 10,000 non-union workers in the auto industry have signed union cards since the successful stand-up strike last year. If all of the autoworkers were to unionize, the car companies would have nowhere to go. You know, unless they want to try to make all of their cars in sweatshops overseas and then ship them back over here, which seems like it would be pretty expensive. US consumers bought 1.4 million new cars last month. The world’s largest car carrier ship can only hold 7,400 cars. That’s a whole lot of ships that would have to cross the ocean every month — about 189 — were all of the car manufacturers to try making them overseas. Sure, some could make cars in Mexico, but not all of them, unless the entire country was turned into one giant auto manufacturing plant.
The workers have the upper hand here, they know it, and with each vote in favor of unionizing, they have more.
PREVIOUSLY:
Nice times!
In American history, great leaders are the ones who finish parts of a Great Thinker's ideas.
Lincoln finished the work of Henry Clay (Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, Transcontinental Railroad, etc.)
FDR set out to finish Wilson's progressive domestic vision (and some of Teddy R.'s. too)
LBJ tried to finish what FDR and Truman had left undone (Medicare and Medicaid)
Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman and many others, picked up the flag of women's suffrage, civil rights and liberties carried for so long by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Ellen Watkins and many others.
(Of course, the model's not perfect -- evil is relentless as well. But you know what I'm getting at.)
All this to say that Shawn Fain is in the mold of Walter Reuther -- the man who literally made factory work equal with "good jobs" in the United States. Reuther, of course, stood on the shoulders of other giants. (And if you don't know, or only dimly recall the name -- it's not your fault. Reuther, once one of the most well-known people in the United States, has been scrubbed from our history.)
Fain has mentioned Reuther's name -- noting that the 2023 contracts were the most generous since Reuther's negotiations with automakers following World War II which transformed the underappreciated and underpaid auto-plant job into an entree to a lifestyle that included shoes and eyeglasses for the kids, refrigerators in the kitchen, and democratization of that thing that had long been the exclusive property of the super-rich -- the summer vacation.