Great success for the UAW trade union at VW in Chattanooga / USA

Spiegel magazine wrote: "Two attempts to establish a union organization had failed in the past, probably also due to resistance from local management. In a complaint to the US Labor Department, the UAW complained that Volkswagen had 'harassed and threatened' employees in Chattanooga who had spoken about the union."

The success is certainly also a result of the UAW's successful strike at the "Big Three" GM, Stellantis and Ford in late fall 2023, which demonstrated and continues to demonstrate the awakening class consciousness of workers in the USA. With the current vote, the UAW has achieved the first breakthrough of being represented in one of the plants of the German car monopolies in the southern states.

It is also a workers' response to the fact that and how the monopolies are playing off plants and locations against each other worldwide. Monopoly representatives in Germany claim that a further reduction in working hours and higher wage demands by workers and their trade unions will contribute to the poor companies having to relocate their production to the USA and other countries.

Long-time militant union activist Frank Hammer - who recently contributed to the United Front webinar - sums up this success as follows: "In our country, workers must actively choose a union by signing a card with at least one third of the workforce. A federal law stipulates that there must then be a secret ballot of the entire workforce, where over 50 percent must vote in favor of the union. Only then can the union represent the workers. At VW, 83 percent took part in the vote and a sensational 73 percent voted in favor of the union. That has never happened before!

Several factors led to this success:

- There is a general upswing in workers' struggles, especially after the successful 6-week strike against the "big 3"

- The rebellion in the UAW union against the old corrupt leadership strengthened the militant forces

- The self-confidence of the workers has grown so that the new UAW leadership has to talk about the working class winning.

- In the campaign for the vote, the union did not rely on functionaries from outside as before, but on the self-organization of the workers in the plant.

This success extends far beyond VW; it is a breakthrough in the particularly anti-union southern US, where all the new car plants are located. After the successful strike at the Big 3, the companies in the South were quick to raise wages - to no avail! Next up is the vote at Mercedes in Tuscaloosa in May. If the wave continues like this, Xcode UAW could double its membership to 300,000."

So much for Frank Hammer. There is still room for improvement in international trade union cooperation. At the Labor Notes conference last weekend, a representative of the International Automotive Workers Coordination brought a message of greeting from VW colleagues in Germany and received a standing ovation (see link below). And Mercedes colleagues have turned to the International Automotive Workers' Coordination for support from Germany for their campaign in May.

The third International Automotive Workers' Conference will take place in India at the end of November 2025. The International Automotive Workers' Coordination will invite the UAW to report on its struggles and successes there, to which international solidarity has also contributed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKyzAOmfT8U&t=1146s

Original text in German: https://www.rf-news.de/2024/kw17/grosser-erfolg-der-uaw-gewerkschaft-bei-vw-in-chattanooga-usa#_ftn1

Frank Hammer at the memorial to the revolutionary workers who demonstrated and were murdered here at the Haymerket in Chicago in 1886 (rf photo)