Criticism for Democrats not including a Palestinian speaker is coming from across the party — including organized labor. Meanwhile, thousands of protesters are gathering nearby for one last push.
More than 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers who build luxury SUVs in Alabama were eligible to vote on whether to join the UAW. Workers faced intense anti-union messaging from Mercedes in the run-up.
Workers at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama start voting this week on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Last month, Volkswagen workers in Tennessee voted overwhelmingly to unionize.
Three high-profile labor disputes have unfolded in central Alabama over the past several years, with Amazon warehouse workers, coal miners and autoworkers all speaking out for change.
More than 7,000 Daimler Truck workers, most of them in North Carolina, had threatened to go on strike. The UAW says the workers will get raises of at least 25% plus cost of living allowances.
Union membership in the U.S. has been declining for decades. But, in 2022, support for unions among Americans was the highest it's been in decades. This dissonance is due, in part, to the difficulties of one important phase in the life cycle of a union: setting up a union in the first place. One place where that has been particularly clear is at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Back in 2008, Volkswagen announced that they would be setting up production in the United States after a 20-year absence. They planned to build a new auto manufacturing plant in Chattanooga.
Volkswagen has plants all over the world, all of which have some kind of worker representation, and the company said that it wanted that for Chattanooga too. So, the United Auto Workers, the union that traditionally represents auto workers, thought they would be able to successfully unionize this plant.
They were wrong.
In this episode, we tell the story of the UAW's 10-year fight to unionize the Chattanooga plant. And, what other unions can learn from how badly that fight went for labor.
This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Willa Rubin. It was engineered by Josephine Nyounai, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Keith Romer. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the UAW, setting a new trajectory for labor unions in the American South.
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., are voting this week on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Two previous attempts to unionize the plant failed. Ballots will be counted on Friday.
Autoworkers at Volkswagen's plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., will vote in mid-April on whether to join the United Auto Workers union. Mercedes workers in Tuscaloosa County, Ala., will soon follow.
Most of the country's other big unions endorsed President Biden in the earliest days of his reelection campaign. But the United Auto Workers held back until today.
Even with pay raises of 25% and other improvements on the table, a large share of General Motors autoworkers are voting to reject the contract reached after a nearly seven-week strike.
After a six-week strike, the United Auto Workers union reached record contract deals with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. But as workers vote on the deals, some say it's not enough.
Retirement security remains a sticking point in the ongoing talks between the United Auto Workers union and the Big 3 automakers. The union wants to see a return of pensions and retiree health care.
A month after auto workers first walked off the job, UAW President Shawn Fain said the union will be ready to call for an expansion of its strike against Big Three automakers at any time.
