Voting Begins in Chattanooga

As I’ve said before, organizing southern auto is critical to the future of the United Auto Workers. It cannot continue as a major force in American life with just the dwindling legacy plants in the North. It must organize the masses of auto workers in the South. Shawn Fain knows this and he has engaged in a smart strategy to force the union activists in those plants to effectively organized themselves before the UAW comes in, creating much more serious buy-in than in previous and failed attempts to organize the plants.

Well, today voting starts today in the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga that notoriously voted no for a union a decade ago after massive Republican politician interference in the campaign and then voted no by an even smaller margin a few years after that. This is a hugely consequential moment in the trajectory of American labor. I am cautiously optimistic. We will see.