After UAW victory in Tennessee, what’s next for unions in the South?

When the news was announced Friday night that the United Auto Workers had successfully organized Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, the supporters gathered at I.B.E.W. Local 175 jumped, cheered and hugged.

The results were hardly in doubt from the moment the first tally was posted. The union lead by more than 70% and kept that lead throughout the night.

In the end, 73% of the eligible VW workers voted to join the union, according to the National Labor Review Board, which oversaw the three-day election. Of the 4,326 workers eligible to vote, 3,613 cast ballots.

The historic victory is the first step in the UAW's campaign to grow its membership in the South, a region that has been historically anti-union.

"They said Southern workers aren’t ready for it. But you all said, watch this. You all moved the mountain," UAW President Shawn Fain said to cheering VW workers after the victory.

The UAW’s win follows big successes for the organization that staged a successful strike last year against the three largest U.S. automakers. The UAW is now concentrated on influencing the growing number of foreign auto plants and newer companies like Tesla and Rivian across the South.

Today more than two-thirds of Americans express support for unions in the most recent Gallup poll. That supportive environment fades somewhat in Tennessee, according to the newly released poll by the Beacon Center, a conservative-leaning think tank. It found that 44% of likely voters in the state have a positive view of the UAW’s effort to organize VW, 19% had a negative view and 21% were neutral.

In February, the union’s board unanimously voted to spend $40 million on its organizing efforts — mostly targeted for campaigns in the South.

It will get another chance in a mid-May vote to organize workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The story of unions in the South

Friday's win marked a stark reversal from UAW’s dismal track record in Chattanooga, where it previously lost bids to organize the VW plant in 2013 and 2019.

This year, the third time was the charm.

“I want to salute of you who have been in this fight for over a decade. Your fortitude is what delivered this," Fain said.

This third, victorious election occurred months after the UAW staged a strike and won a favorable contract for 145,000 workers at Ford, Stellantis and General Motors, including the GM plant in Spring Hill near Nashville.

Workers at VW who supported the union drive said they and their colleagues were energized by the pay and concessions the UAW secured following last year’s strike.

Historically labor unions have never found much success in the South. As far back as the 19th century, Southern politicians and businesses have used the region’s relative lack of union and lower wages to lure businesses.

Fain, speaking to reporters after the victory, argued that a lack of unions had driven away workers from the South. Three of Fain's grandparents, he said, were born in Tennessee but left after the Great Depression for better opportunities in the North.

"Workers don’t have to leave here," he said. "If they organize they can lead the same dream my grandparents lived 70 years ago."

The conservative politicians that hold power today across the South continue to fiercely oppose unions.

Days before the voting began in Chattanooga, Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee and five other Southern governors issued a joint statement urging workers at VW to reject the union.

"The UAW has come in making big promises to our constituents that they can't deliver on," Lee said in a written statement. "And we have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values."

The statement was also signed by the governors of Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina.

President Joe Biden spoke directly to those governors in a statement issued after the UAW victory was announced.

"Let me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose," Biden said.

The next steps for the UAW

While a major Americans say they support unions, only 10% of them are union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The UAW has seen its membership decline in recent years. Widespread corruption among the UAW’s leadership also tarnished the reputation of the union founded in 1930s.

Fain, elected in 2023, has brought renewed energy and aggressive, creative tactics to the union.

Meanwhile, car manufacturing in the U.S. has increasingly moved from the Midwest to the South in recent years. Both domestic and foreign companies are making electric vehicles at these newer Southern factories. The shift is so pronounced that the region has been dubbed the “Battery Belt.”

These demographics mean the UAW’s future depends on winning over southern workers.

The UAW will have another chance when Mercedes workers in Alabama cast their final ballots next month. The results of the Mercedes election will be known on May 17.

Gary Estwick contributed to this report from Chattanooga.

Todd A. Price is a regional reporter in the South for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at taprice@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: UAW union wins at VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee: What's next?