The automotive industry rn

Starting today and running through Friday, ~4,000 workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), in a key election that could provide a boost – or setback – to the union’s stated growth efforts in the automotive industry.

What’s at stake: Late last year, the UAW formally launched one of its largest organizing drives in history, spanning 13 automakers and three dozen factories.

The goal? Leverage its recent record contracts with the “Detroit Three” – Ford, GM, and Stellantis – to significantly expand the union’s membership within the automotive industry.

Monkey, meet back

The UAW currently represents ~150,000 workers across the Detroit Three – and has been trying unsuccessfully to build its membership within other automakers for decades. Should this vote go the UAW’s way, Volkswagen’s Chattanooga auto-assembly factory would be the only one outside of the Detroit Three to be unionized.

• It could also mark the start of a comeback for the UAW, which has declined in popularity over the years. UAW membership has slipped from a peak of ~1.5 million decades ago to ~400,000 today, a total that includes nonautomotive workers.

The opposition argument: Critics, including six Republican governors, say the union’s growth efforts could lead to layoffs and less future investments in the industry.

👀 Looking ahead… A majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, are also calling for a UAW vote.