UAW's Fain says VW victory shows union 'can win anywhere'

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain said the union's organizing victory at Volkswagen AG's plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, shows the union "can win anywhere."

The plant that builds the Volkswagen ID.4, Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport on Friday became the first foreign-owned automaker organized in the South by the Detroit-based union. Of the almost 84% of eligible workers at the plant who voted last week, 73% supported UAW representation, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

The results, if not appealed this week, would send the German automaker to the bargaining table with the union — to get a contract "as soon as possible," Fain said. His goal is to align the expiration of a future contract around May 1, 2028, the same as the new contract deadlines with the Detroit Three and the same date the union has urged the greater labor movement to coalesce around.

"Working-class people have to come together in this world," he told The Detroit News in a phone interview. "The corporate class came together years ago, and they went global, and they fight with workers globally. They manipulate workers globally, and they pit worker against worker globally, and it's time that we unify as workers, and we pull our power, and we take these companies on globally as they have done to us over the last 40 years."

The winning UAW vote came despite opposition from Republican governors, right-to-work proponents and a minority of workers at VW's Chattanooga plant, where two earlier unionization votes were defeated. Volkswagen referred to a statement from Friday saying that it's awaiting the NLRB's certification of the vote. It didn't indicate whether it would appeal.

Fain declined to detail priorities in negotiating a contract with Volkswagen or how close an agreement could be to the contracts with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV. The union's next steps include assembling a bargaining committee and hearing from the members what they want to see in a deal. Fain noted insufficient paid time off was an issue he's heard repeatedly. VW this year added two unplanned paid time-off days for a total of five.

"You want to let the members make those decisions," Fain said about potential demands.

It also wasn't immediately clear whether the union would seek representation on VW's governing supervisory board, or " Aufsichtsrat." German law requires large companies to appoint labor representatives to the board, part of the country's two-tier governance structure known as co-determination.

A supervisory board, whose deputy chairman typically comes from among its labor representatives, monitors the executive team running the company's daily operations. IG Metall and other unions on boards like VW's have played roles in removing troublesome or under-performing CEOs, though critics also have said the governance structure placated unions by encouraging common ground, avoiding strikes and watering down agreements.

But after the revelation of bribes, kickbacks and corruption within the UAW — culminating in federal prison for two former presidents, among other union officials — its rank-and-file voted to institute direct election of its international leaders. In the wake, those leaders, like Fain, have promised greater transparency and called members' employers the enemy.

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