- Advertisement -
CHATTANOOGA: The United Auto Workers has made historical past by successful its first unionization vote at an auto manufacturing unit in the US South. Now it must show the success wasn’t a fluke by pulling off a second victory at a Mercedes plant in Alabama subsequent month.
UAW representatives on the VW plant additionally should present their mettle by negotiating a contract that provides staff what they’ve fought for – higher advantages, improved security on the job and a better work-life stability.
The Volkswagen landslide win in Tennessee is anticipated to supply essential momentum to UAW President Shawn Fain’s $40 million marketing campaign to develop the union outdoors Detroit to the US South and West, focusing on 13 non-union auto firms, together with Toyota and Tesla.
Fain, a scrappy chief who reveled in final 12 months’s struggle with Detroit firms that received double-digit raises and value-of-residing changes, advised a celebration of VW staff that the union would carry the struggle on to Mercedes. “Let’s win more for the working class all over this nation,” he stated.
The Mercedes plant vote, scheduled for mid-May, is anticipated to be a harder struggle than at VW, which took a impartial place in the vote.
Mercedes has stated it respects staff’ proper to prepare and needs them to make an knowledgeable resolution. But in a letter to staff in January, it stated that the union organizers “cannot guarantee you anything” and that some staff had stated no to unionization due to Mercedes’ aggressive pay and advantages.
“Mercedes is running a much more aggressive anti-union campaign than Volkswagen within the plant,” stated John Logan, labor professor at San Francisco State University.
But he added that the big VW victory that noticed 73% of eligible staff vote in favor will present vital momentum for organizing efforts at different crops in the South.
“This will give them a huge boost for the Mercedes vote, and if they win that one, too, I wouldn’t be surprised to see elections at Hyundai, Honda and Toyota over the next several months,” he stated.
The UAW says a “supermajority” of the roughly 5,200 eligible staff on the Mercedes meeting plant in Vance, Alabama, and a close-by battery plant in Woodstock assist it. UAW coverage is to push for a vote as soon as 70% of staff have signed union playing cards.
Much could rely on economics and perceptions about job safety. In the historically anti-union South the place the UAW has misplaced a number of fights in the previous, six Republican governors have flatly opposed the union’s present marketing campaign, describing it as risking job safety since automakers face greater labor prices.
Prior to final autumn’s UAW labor talks with the Detroit Three automakers, Ford officers stated their US labor prices have been $64 an hour, in contrast with an estimated $55 for international automakers and $45-$50 for electrical automobile chief Tesla.
Workers at two different crops in the US South – a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota elements manufacturing unit in Missouri – have additionally launched organizing campaigns, with 30% of staff signing playing cards saying they assist the UAW.
Workers on the VW plant say they may kick off conferences on Sunday to strategize on contract negotiations.
“The real fight is getting your fair share,” Fain advised VW staff Friday night time.
VW employee Jeremy Bowman, who hopes to be on the plant’s organizing committee, agreed. “The fight is just starting,” he stated.
UAW representatives on the VW plant additionally should present their mettle by negotiating a contract that provides staff what they’ve fought for – higher advantages, improved security on the job and a better work-life stability.
The Volkswagen landslide win in Tennessee is anticipated to supply essential momentum to UAW President Shawn Fain’s $40 million marketing campaign to develop the union outdoors Detroit to the US South and West, focusing on 13 non-union auto firms, together with Toyota and Tesla.
Fain, a scrappy chief who reveled in final 12 months’s struggle with Detroit firms that received double-digit raises and value-of-residing changes, advised a celebration of VW staff that the union would carry the struggle on to Mercedes. “Let’s win more for the working class all over this nation,” he stated.
The Mercedes plant vote, scheduled for mid-May, is anticipated to be a harder struggle than at VW, which took a impartial place in the vote.
Mercedes has stated it respects staff’ proper to prepare and needs them to make an knowledgeable resolution. But in a letter to staff in January, it stated that the union organizers “cannot guarantee you anything” and that some staff had stated no to unionization due to Mercedes’ aggressive pay and advantages.
“Mercedes is running a much more aggressive anti-union campaign than Volkswagen within the plant,” stated John Logan, labor professor at San Francisco State University.
But he added that the big VW victory that noticed 73% of eligible staff vote in favor will present vital momentum for organizing efforts at different crops in the South.
“This will give them a huge boost for the Mercedes vote, and if they win that one, too, I wouldn’t be surprised to see elections at Hyundai, Honda and Toyota over the next several months,” he stated.
The UAW says a “supermajority” of the roughly 5,200 eligible staff on the Mercedes meeting plant in Vance, Alabama, and a close-by battery plant in Woodstock assist it. UAW coverage is to push for a vote as soon as 70% of staff have signed union playing cards.
Much could rely on economics and perceptions about job safety. In the historically anti-union South the place the UAW has misplaced a number of fights in the previous, six Republican governors have flatly opposed the union’s present marketing campaign, describing it as risking job safety since automakers face greater labor prices.
Prior to final autumn’s UAW labor talks with the Detroit Three automakers, Ford officers stated their US labor prices have been $64 an hour, in contrast with an estimated $55 for international automakers and $45-$50 for electrical automobile chief Tesla.
Workers at two different crops in the US South – a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota elements manufacturing unit in Missouri – have additionally launched organizing campaigns, with 30% of staff signing playing cards saying they assist the UAW.
Workers on the VW plant say they may kick off conferences on Sunday to strategize on contract negotiations.
“The real fight is getting your fair share,” Fain advised VW staff Friday night time.
VW employee Jeremy Bowman, who hopes to be on the plant’s organizing committee, agreed. “The fight is just starting,” he stated.
- Advertisement -