On Friday night, autoworkers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee made history. In the face of a coordinated fear-mongering campaign run by elected officials all over the South, workers voted by a 3-to-1 margin to form a union with UAW. They are the first autoworkers to win a union election at a new auto company since workers at Ford joined UAW in 1941.

A group of workers, many wearing orange UAW shirts that say "Future Member" on them, wait in a union hall for vote results.

VW workers waiting for vote results on Friday night.

This is a watershed moment for the American working class. For 50 years, manufacturing companies have moved jobs to the South, where wages are low and anti-worker elected officials coordinate to keep them that way. In this election, Volkswagen workers faced down those elected officials and won a blowout victory. In doing so, they set the stage for future victories in the region—including at the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where over 70% of workers have signed union authorization cards and scheduled an election in May.

VW workers celebrate after learning that they have won their union vote.

The victory in Chattanooga is an important moment in our society’s transition to a sustainable economy. In Chattanooga, VW workers assemble the ID.4, an electric vehicle powered by the kind of lithium-ion battery that researchers at UC work on every day. It’s crucial to make sure that the workers helping decarbonize our economy have the power to win fair pay and good conditions, whether they’re in Chattanooga assembling batteries or in California doing basic research. In winning their union, VW workers have taken a huge step forward for justice in the entire EV pipeline—let’s follow their example at UC.

In solidarity,

Yunyi Li
ASE Southern Vice President, UAW 4811
Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media, UCLA