The Volkswagen EV ID.4 crossover at the Volkswagen US plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on June 8, 2022.
Michael Weiland | CNBC
DETROIT — Volkswagen Workers at a factory in Tennessee have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a vote to join the United Auto Workers union, the union announced Monday.
The union said that this submission comes after “the vast majority of Volkswagen workers signed union cards in just 100 days,” marking a milestone in the labor group’s organizing process for non-union auto plants in the United States.
The UAW has previously failed to regulate foreign automakers in the United States. More recently, plants affiliated with Volkswagen and Nissan have fallen short of the support needed to unionize. In 2019, Volkswagen workers at a Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant rejected union representation in a vote of 833 to 776.
The Chattanooga plant is Volkswagen's only assembly plant in the United States and employs more than 4,000 auto workers who will be eligible to vote for union representation.
Volkswagen confirmed it had received notice that the UAW had petitioned the NLRB to hold an election. The company said it respects its workers' right to the democratic process and organization.
“We will fully support the NLRB vote so that every team member has the opportunity to vote privately on this important decision. The election timeline will be determined by the NLRB. Volkswagen is proud of our work environment in Chattanooga that provides some of the best-paid employees,” the company said in a statement. By email: “Jobs in the area.”
Volkswagen production workers at the plant earn between $23.40 an hour and $32.40 an hour, with a four-year growth period to reach top wages, according to the company.
Volkswagen's hourly wages are lower than those the UAW negotiated last year with Detroit automakers, which this year range between about $25 an hour and $36 an hour for production workers, including estimated cost of living adjustments, or COLA. . By the end of UAW contracts, top wages are expected to exceed $42 an hour for production workers.
Volkswagen is one of 13 non-union U.S. automakers that the UAW set its sights on late last year after securing record contracts with Detroit automakers.
The program covers nearly 150,000 automakers across BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.
