“We know we’re out of sight”: big win for Volkswagen workers in Tennessee

Chicago (USA), special correspondent.

The UAW (United Auto Workers) has won its second victory in less than six months. After obtaining a record agreement following the strike launched at the same time in the Big Three (Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which owns Chrysler), the car union will be able to create a part in the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga (Tennessee), only one. in the group of Germans where the union had no right to exist. This was decided by an overwhelming majority (73%) of the 4,300 employees.

Everything is historical

It is the first plant to vote for the creation of a union in the South since 1941 and the first site owned by a foreign manufacturer to be integrated. Historically, the former Confederate states were mission lands for labor organizations.

Republican elected officials who rule almost unchallenged across the region have passed so-called Right to Work laws, creating insurmountable obstacles to union recognition. The dam just came out. Last-minute efforts by the business community and local elected officials, in a panic, did not stop the machine, which had been running for months.

The union had lost twice, in 2014 and 2019. Shortly after its success against the Detroit giants, Shawn Fain, the president of the UAW, announced a major campaign in November 2023, setting the goal of uniting 150 000 workers in the “desert” . ” of the South and electric car factories.

Drawing lessons from ten years of failure and clearly inspired by the success of the corporate model of Starbucks (now 500 stores have voted to form a union), the new management, elected in early 2023, faced with participants who prefer “participatory management”, has completely changed the strategy.

“We are doing things differently this timeclaimed Shawn Fain in a March 24 speech to Mercedes employees in Alabama. We will make sure there are leaders in every department, every team, they talk to each other about building unity. This is the way to victory. » And add: “The only people who can organize the South are the workers of the South. »

Increased punching power

During two previous attempts, the UAW, headquartered in Detroit (Michigan), in the Midwest, sent its organizing teams to manage the campaign from A to Z without the advice or approval of local workers. In 2014, the campaign turned into a fiasco: two and a half years finally disappointed the base, from 180 workers to 50.

This time, the party put its financial and organizational power at the service of the organizing committee within the factory itself, made up of 300 workers appointed “electoral captains”. “90% of the factory, every production line, every team, was covered”according to Victor Vaughn, one of the kings mentioned by the specialized website Career Tips.

“We started with a conversation two years ago about what needs to be changed, then we issued the cards of unity. We don’t know if we will win, but we know that we are not seen again. »

Quichelle Liggins, an employee at Hyundai

Met during a large conference (4,500 participants, record) organized by this reference site for social issues this weekend in Chicago, Zach Costello, an employee at the Chattanooga factory, testifies to what has recently changed in the general climate: “First of all, it’s increasing burnout. The new workers get the minimum wage and they can’t make ends meet. In 2019, management promised us to avoid forming a union and they didn’t keep it. At that time, there weren’t many union victories. “What advantage do we have?” we saw ourselves answering. The UAW’s victory over the Big Three completely changed the situation. The workers saw exactly what the party could achieve. I have seen some people who do not like the union have suddenly changed their minds. »

Will Volkswagen’s first “domino” lead to the second on the list: the Mercedes plant in Alabama where the GLE SUV and the luxury Maybach GLS (sold for 170,000 euros each) are built? 5,000 workers will vote between May 13 and 17.

Michael Göbel, CEO of Mercedes-Benz for the United States, went public, comparing the creation of a union to strikes, fees to be paid and obstacles to conflict resolution. Local employers organized a poster campaign while Republican Governor Kay Ivey played out the issue: “Alabama’s economic success model is under attack. » To which Shawn Fain responded, point-for-tat, as usual: “He is absolutely right. We are attacking it because the workers are tired of being abused. »

Expand cooperation to neighboring states

Alabama appears to be the next “front line” to draft. This state in the Deep South has served as an anti-union haven for several foreign manufacturers (Mercedes, Hyundai, Toyota and Honda). But, here too, things are changing, according to Quichelle Liggins, an employee at Hyundai: “We started with a conversation two years ago about what needs to be changed, then we issued the cards of unity. We don’t know if we will win, but we know that we are not seen again. »

Black labor proved to be a decisive factor in this union battle. None of the four developers, nor their subcontractors, have located their sites in areas with large African-American populations — which is necessarily an option in Alabama, where a quarter of the population is black. In recent years, many African-Americans, affected by higher-than-average unemployment, have moved closer to factories so they can apply for jobs unfilled by the aging white population.

Since the last vote, the workers at the Mercedes factory have been black. Local organizers are making the union a civil rights issue. “Montgomery, Alabama, is a difficult place for anyone to start a union, punctuates Quichelle Liggins, but it’s also the center of the civil rights movement, so…”