A Volkswagen EV ID.4 crossover at the Volkswagen of America plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on June 8, 2022.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Volkswagen Workers at a Tennessee plant have submitted a request to the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the United Auto Workers, the union announced Monday.
The filing comes after “a vast majority of Volkswagen workers signed union cards in just 100 days,” the union said, marking a major milestone in the union group’s efforts to organize non-union auto plants in the United States
The UAW has failed to organize foreign-based automakers in the United States. Recently, the Volkswagen and Nissan plants lacked the necessary support for unionization. In 2019, VW workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation by a vote of 833 to 776.
The Chattanooga plant is VW’s only assembly plant in the U.S. and employs more than 4,000 autoworkers who would be eligible to vote for union representation.
VW confirmed receipt of notice that the UAW had filed a petition with the NLRB to hold an election. The company said it respects its workers’ rights to a democratic process and to unionize.
“We will fully support an NLRB vote so that every team member has the opportunity to vote confidentially on this important decision. The schedule for the election will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our work environment in Chattanooga, which offers some of the highest-paying companies creating jobs in the region,” the company said in an emailed statement.
According to the company, VW production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 and $32.40 an hour, with a four-year training period to reach top wages.
VW’s hourly wages are lower than what the UAW negotiated with Detroit automakers last year. They range from about $25 to $36 an hour for production workers this year, including the estimated cost of living (COLA). By the end of the UAW contracts, top wages for production workers are expected to exceed $42 an hour.
VW is one of 13 non-union automakers in the U.S. that the UAW targeted late last year after striking record deals with the Detroit automakers.
The action covers nearly 150,000 auto workers at BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO:
Source link
2024-03-18 18:40:38
www.cnbc.com
