UAW Organizing Moving Ahead

As I’ve stated on several occasions, while the UAW winning that good contract from the Big Three was a huge thing, the future of the union depends on organizing foreign auto and Tesla much more than it does winning good contracts for its current membership. The UAW has long tried to organize the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, with a notable and shocking failure in 2014 being a key moment in the union’s history. That was a moment when despite VW in Germany being fine with the union (it was being pressured big time from its German union), opposition from foremen within the plant combined with a gigantic campaign from the Tennessee Republican Party and anti-union firms to defeat the effort through racism. They festooned the city with billboards showing Black Detroit as what happens with unions. It worked.

So now Fain’s UAW is again targeting the Chattanooga plant. But they are doing it the right way, by forcing the workers themselves to lead the way and get the cards, rather than send it a bunch of organizers from the main office. When they can get 70 percent of the workers to sign a card, the UAW will file for an election. It is going well as they are now over 50 percent. The right-wing opposition is getting back together, so we will see. This is probably the lowest hanging fruit for the union–there is a rump union in the plant, there’s that history, and there’s the VW official neutrality. But you have to actually be able to pick that fruit, or more accurately in this case, the fruit has to want to be picked. So we will see. But this is a positive sign.