In late October, the UAW announced that more than 2/3rd of its 4,000 Volkswagen Chattanooga workers had voted to authorize a strike (The UAW did not announce the exact strike authorization vote numbers.)
In both 2014 and 2019 the UAW narrowly lost union elections by a few dozen votes. Finally, the union won a resounding victory in April of 2024 when 72% of the workforce voted to unionize.
As a reporter who has covered the organizing effort at the plant for more than 12 years, it seemed incredible that, after so many years of struggling to win support, an overwhelming majority of workers at the plant would vote to strike.
The sticking issue is job security. Volkswagen won't guarantee in writing that it will keep the plant open. While workers are typically dissuaded from militancy by shutdown threats, UAW has flipped the script. Many workers want to see a firm commitment from the company in their contract, a demand that is producing strong support for the strike.
"There's a lot of excitement on the floor,” 33-year-old Caleb Michalski told me when we spoke shortly after the strike authorization vote. "Strikes are hard, but I think people have really seen how Volkswagen has shown their true colors, and they are upset."
When Michalski first started at the plant in 2020, he was skeptical of the union. However, over time, as he saw the company break its promises, particularly on safety issues, he became more supportive.
Michalski says he became a union enthusiast after fighting with the company for months to get a safety hoist put on the assembly line. He says that he had to push for attention from the CEO of Volkswagen America.
"I shouldn't have to talk to the CEO of a multibillion-dollar corporation just to get a hoist," Michalski told me when I interviewed him in April 2024 before the union's successful vote.
Following the 72% vote in favor of the UAW in April of 2024, Michalski says that the union has continued to educate skeptics and build support, leading to the strike vote two weeks ago.
"We are constantly talking to workers and educating them about the union and how the union represents us," Michalski, a member of the rank-and-file bargaining committee, told me.
Michalski says that support for the union has only grown as workers have become frustrated by the company stonewalling negotiations for a first union contract with rights similar to those of unionized Volkswagen workers in other parts of the world.
Even when bargaining about basic issues like Cost of Living Adjustments pegged to inflation, something nearly all union contracts have, Volkswagen balked. UAW has accused the company of agreeing to measures and then backtracking on previous agreements—a pattern of regressive bargaining that the UAW says is illegal under federal labor law.
"We've always had a really, really strong base of hardcore supporters, but we've seen that populace grow," says Michalski. "Even some of the people who were just kind of trying to wait everything out now, now even more of them are like ‘Oh my goodness, we've got to do something, because this company just simply doesn't care about (us).’"
Right now, the UAW is holding trainings on how to prepare members for the possibility of a strike. This includes instructing workers to save money and build support networks in order to get through the financial strains as well as anxieties of a strike.
"We just need to show people the better way and educate people and bring them in," says Michalski.
A key part of building solidarity has been mobilizing community support in the Chattanooga area. Multiple unions have held rallies in support of the striking workers, earning favorable media coverage for the union. The Chattanooga Area Labor Council has even launched a strike support fund in preparation for the strike.
"This is a historic moment not just for Chattanooga, but for the entire South," said Geoffrey Meldahl, president of the Chattanooga Area Central Labor Council. "For generations, working people here have been told to keep quiet, take what they're given, and be grateful. Today, they're writing a different story of courage, unity, and dignity."
When Michalski is out in the community, he says that he regularly hears from people who are supportive of the union.
"I'll go to drop a package off at the post office or something like that. And they're like, ‘oh man, how are you guys doing? We're rooting for you,’" says Michalski.
The company tried to counter union support by lobbying local GOP politicians to threaten to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies if workers successfully unionized. However, after workers voted to unionize, the subsidies were not withheld.
Recently, Republican Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversore asked Volkswagen workers to meet him at the edge of the parking lot after work to discuss the future of the plant. However, Michalski says that only approximately a dozen anti-union workers showed up
Unlike times past, when local GOP officials threatened that the plant would close if workers voted to unionize, the workers aren't buying it anymore. The union has worked hard to assure workers that the plant is unlikely to close given the profitability of the vehicles being made.
"The way that I see it is that the company, for years, has used local chambers, local politicians, to try to suppress workers' voices. And this is just a different verse in the same song that everyone has heard before," says Michalski.
As the union builds momentum for a strike at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant, Michalski says he sees support for the union he has never seen before.
"It's been incredible. It's the level of dedication and earnestness and seriousness, everyone is excited and united to be standing up for themselves," says Michalski as workers at Chattanooga, after more than a decade of unionizing, prepare to strike for a first contract.
