The United Auto Workers said Wednesday that the battery manufacturing business between General Motors and LG Energy Solutions has agreed to recognize the union at the Tennessee plant.
The UAW said most workers at the Ultium Cells facility have signed cards to join the UAW and the company agreed to recognize the union after workers at the Ohio Ultium plant voted overwhelmingly to join the union in 2022 and won a new contract earlier this year. per year with significant salary increases.
The Tennessee plant employs 1,000 workers and produces batteries for GM electric vehicles built at a nearby assembly plant, including the Cadillac Lyriq.
“The group at Ultium Cells in Tennessee has expressed its desire to be represented by the UAW. The parties are about to enter into a local negotiation process,” said the GM spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Ultium Cells confirmed that it has seen the UAW at the Spring Hill facility. Representatives for LG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GM’s battery operation was a point of contention in last year’s UAW contract negotiations, when the union went on strike at the plants of the Big Three automakers for six weeks.
The automaker has finally agreed to let its Ultium battery plants be subject to a major union deal if a majority of workers decide to unionize.
UAW President Shawn Fain is leading a $40 million organizing effort across the country, targeting major automakers like Toyota and Tesla.
The union saw success at Volkswagen in April when 73% of voting workers at a Tennessee plant chose to join the UAW, making it the first auto union in the South to hold an election since the 1940s.
Workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama within weeks of winning voted against the union. The UAW said earlier this year that more than 30% of workers at a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Missouri Toyota auto parts plant have signed cards indicating they want to join the UAW.
The union’s executive committee recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential campaign, emphasizing that the Democrat stands with workers over former Republican President Donald Trump. Fain and Trump have exchanged barbs over the past few months, with Fain calling the former president a “scab” and Trump calling for Fain to be fired.
The support of the next administration could provide support for the union’s ongoing organizing efforts, but it won’t make it or break it, labor professors say.
—Nora Eckert and David Shepardson, Reuters
Source link
