Originally published in Labor Today
Starting in 2023, a number of autoworkers in plants across the American South, long thought to be impossible to organize, announced a plan to unionize all the auto plants. The United Auto Workers (UAW) led this initiative that came on the heels of their successful Stand-Up Strike at the Big 3 auto plants in the United States.
In February 2024, the UAW announced committing $40 million through 2026 in new organizing funds to support non-union autoworkers and battery workers who are organizing across the country, and particularly in the South. The UAW International Executive Board voted to commit the funds in response to an explosion in organizing activity among non-union auto and battery workers, in order to meet the moment and grow the labor movement.
In the next few years, the electric vehicle battery industry is slated to add tens of thousands of jobs across the country, and new standards are being set as the industry comes online. These jobs will supplement, and in some cases largely replace, existing powertrain jobs in the auto industry. Through a massive new organizing effort, workers will fight to maintain and raise the standard in the emerging battery industry.
In April 2024, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN voted to join the UAW with 73% in favor of the union. About 83% of all the workers turned out for the vote. A couple of months later, the UAW lost a unionization drive at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, AL on the heels of a multi-million dollar disinformation campaign by the company and threats by Alabama lawmakers.
The UAW is not only organizing auto plants, but also the battery factories for automobiles. In September this year, workers at the Spring Hill, TN plant of Ultium, which makes EV batteries for GM vehicles, voted to join the UAW. Other EV companies have unionized with unions like the Communication Workers of America (CWA) like workers at the New Flyer factory in Alabama. They formed a union with the CWA joining a string of US organizing victories at its parent NFI Group Inc., North America’s biggest manufacturer of transit buses.
With the presidential election looming and the cost of living rising, LUEL applauds the organizing of the UAW and other unions in the South. The only way to fight the rising cost of living and push back against the bosses is organizing the working class in this country. These campaigns are leading the way in rebuilding the American labor movement into a fighting force for all working class people.
