{"id":7597,"date":"2023-12-07T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/?p=7597"},"modified":"2023-12-07T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:37:25","slug":"what-happens-when-1000-workers-say-they-want-a-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/2023\/12\/07\/what-happens-when-1000-workers-say-they-want-a-union\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When 1000+ Workers Say They Want A Union?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do workers join together and form their own union?\u00a0 Start by over a 1000 sign authorization cards to join the UAW like the folks at VW in Chattanooga, TN have just done.\u00a0 You can learn more about this inspiring campaign to bring autoworkers a better life by watching this video – StandUp VW<\/a>!<\/p>\n

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Dec 07 2023<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga Launch Public Campaign to Join UAW with Over 1,000 Workers Signed Up<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Over 1,000 workers have signed union authorization cards in less than a week and gone public with their union drive at Volkswagen\u2019s only U.S. plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. The move is a surprise breakthrough in the UAW\u2019s national campaign to organize all non-union autoworkers at 13 companies. Over 30% of VW workers in Chattanooga have joined the movement, marking a major milestone in their organizing campaign. (Their campaign webpage is at\u00a0uaw.org\/vw<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are standing up like never before,\u201d said Steve Cochran, a skilled team member and a leader of the workers building the union at Volkswagen. \u201cThere are a lot of young workers in the plant now and this generation wants respect. They\u2019re not okay with mistreatment by management. They see what\u2019s happening at Starbucks and Amazon. They know that standing up to join the union is how you win fair treatment, fair pay and a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volkswagen Group has made $184 billion in profits over the last decade. VW vehicle prices are up 37 percent in the past three years while workers\u2019 wages lag far behind those of the Big Three. Workers at the Chattanooga plant build the VW Atlas, Atlas Sport, and the electric ID.4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m looking at a weld, I think about my grandkids in the backseat of that car,\u201d said Vicky Holloway, a production team member in body shop quality. \u201cI want to know we\u2019re doing the job right. But the company isn’t putting people into jobs because they have the experience or the qualifications. They\u2019re just handpicking whoever they want. We need the union so people with the\u00a0 right experience are put into the right positions. Safety has to come first.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI like working at VW, I\u2019m proud to make these vehicles, but I\u2019m not proud of the way we\u2019re treated,\u201d said Billy Quigg, a production team member in assembly. \u201cThe forced overtime on Saturdays, the lack of time off, it keeps us away from our families. That\u2019s why we\u2019re building the union. When people have a good job and time to spend with our families, we\u2019ll help the whole community thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The growing movement among non-union autoworkers across the country builds off the success of the UAW\u2019s Stand Up Strike at the Big Three, where around 50,000 workers struck for over 40 days to win record contracts at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. Non-union automakers have hurried to make marginal improvements to pay packages, but remain far short of the wages, benefits, and working conditions at the unionized automakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnover at the plant is a serious problem,\u201d said Josh Epperson, an equipment operator in assembly. \u201cI have trained new people on the line and most of them are gone in a few months. They don\u2019t have the tools and the support they need to thrive. With the union, we can improve working conditions. If there\u2019s an issue in our work area, we\u2019ll have a way to address it. We\u2019ll find common ground so we can make it a good job and people will want to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a union family, I know the difference the union makes,\u201d said Drew Hall, a production team member in paint. \u201cMy father grew up here, then moved to Michigan and got a job with Ford. He had to retire early with a disability and the union made sure he got his full pension and retiree health care. He moved back to Chattanooga and lived a good life for 25 more years. The union made that possible. It\u2019s a better way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of non-union autoworkers across the country are signing union cards at\u00a0UAW.org\/join<\/a>, and the UAW has released informational videos on workers\u2019 legal rights, and the record auto industry profits spurring workers to demand a better deal.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Volkswagen<\/p>\n

(graphic via uaw.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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How do workers join together and form their own union?\u00a0 Start by over a 1000 sign authorization cards to join the UAW like the folks at VW in Chattanooga, TN have just done.\u00a0 You can learn more about this inspiring campaign to bring autoworkers a better life by watching this video – StandUp VW! Dec […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7598,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7597\/revisions\/7598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uawlocal2250.net\/live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}