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and they pay to distribute some of

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our content. This is planet money from

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Npr. Last.

0:33

Week unions got a big when workers

0:35

at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee

0:37

voted to unionize by a lot. Two

0:40

thousand, six hundred and twenty eight votes

0:42

for nine hundred and eighty five against.

0:44

And this is a results that even

0:47

less than a year ago kind of

0:49

felt like a long shot, but I

0:51

feel. Comfortable. Saying because we did

0:53

a whole episode on the plant in

0:55

Chattanooga. Today. We are real visiting

0:58

that episode it ran originally in October

1:00

Twenty Twenty Three. And it's about why

1:02

it has been so hard to unionize

1:04

in places like Tennessee. Why it wasn't

1:07

happening. And. Then at the end

1:09

we will have an update about what changed

1:11

last week and how this when is potentially

1:13

just the first domino to fall. It.

1:15

All starts with the story of

1:18

a party back in May. Twenty

1:20

eleven hundreds of people dressed business

1:22

casual show up as more derives

1:24

and witness the grand opening of

1:26

a brand new two million square

1:28

foot auto manufacturing. Plant This is

1:31

where is this looks. Like

1:34

a fun party at, some of the

1:36

guests are cars to. The crowd is

1:39

invited to an enormous room with rows

1:41

and rows of chairs. Pacing is the.

1:45

Scenes in the opening ceremony with.

1:48

The overhead lights dim

1:50

and the video screens

1:52

flash the Volkswagen logo

1:55

doesn't photo is finally

1:57

make mistakes. The future

1:59

of. Volkswagen begins

2:02

in Chattanooga. I

2:06

gotta say, this is such a weird

2:08

announcement. Yeah, it kind of gets weirder. As

2:10

part of the opening ceremonies, there's an

2:12

interpretive dance by people in white body

2:14

suits, and it kind of appears like

2:16

they're assembling a Volkswagen. Afterwards,

2:19

there is a more straight-ahead press

2:21

conference. Right. Tennessee Senator

2:23

Bob Corker is there, and he's

2:26

emotional. The greatest moment in

2:28

my public career was

2:30

receiving the call from the Volkswagen group

2:32

that they were coming to Chattanooga. And

2:34

I want to thank all of you

2:36

for making that decision. The

2:40

opening of this Volkswagen manufacturing

2:42

plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee was

2:44

the culmination of years of

2:46

negotiation. The company had shut down

2:49

its only American plant back in the 1980s,

2:51

and this was their comeback. And

2:53

the competition to win Volkswagen's new

2:55

plant was fierce. Around that

2:58

time, Southern states were desperate to lure

3:00

in big companies. South Carolina gave

3:02

BMW more than $130 million in

3:04

incentives, and Alabama gave Mercedes more

3:06

than $250 million worth of incentives

3:08

to build a plant there. And Tennessee?

3:11

They wanted in. They wanted a car plant, too. Steven

3:14

Silvia, professor of international relations at

3:16

American University, he says the state

3:18

did everything they could to woo

3:20

Volkswagen. Well, Bob

3:22

Corker works very closely with

3:25

the state establishment, and

3:28

they get a range of

3:31

subsidies and other benefits they

3:33

offer Volkswagen. They offer tax

3:36

abatements. They offer them land.

3:38

They offer them educational facilities.

3:41

When you add it all up, it comes to more than $570

3:43

million in aid, tax breaks, and incentives. At

3:49

the time, a typical auto plant cost

3:51

about $1 billion. So

3:54

that is how Dust Auto came back to

3:56

the states and set up in Tennessee.

4:00

of what this moment was like. The

4:02

plant opens as the country is still

4:04

recovering from the financial crisis. For

4:06

locals, this is like this one

4:08

shiny star in a long dark night. When

4:11

the Volkswagen plant starts hiring, 85,000 people apply for just

4:13

2,000 jobs. 2,000

4:17

new jobs making cars. And

4:20

of course, this is interesting not

4:22

just to locals, but also to

4:24

unions, specifically the United Auto Workers.

4:26

You know, the union that traditionally

4:28

represents people who work in car

4:31

manufacturing and currently has members on

4:33

strike, they want these to be

4:35

union jobs. Right. Because the way

4:37

the UAW sees it, Chattanooga is

4:39

one place where they maybe can regain some

4:41

ground. The UAW used to represent a majority

4:44

of auto workers in the US back in

4:46

1979. They had more than one and a

4:48

half million members. By the time

4:50

this plant opened, that number had fallen to

4:52

below 400,000. Stephen

4:55

says that decline is in part because

4:57

of right to work laws that make

4:59

it hard to form and fund a

5:02

union. But it's also because a bunch

5:04

of foreign owned car companies came into

5:06

the US and set up non-union factories.

5:08

The UAW has had a frustrating

5:11

time for almost

5:14

20 years trying to organize

5:17

foreign owned car plants and

5:20

failing. At the arrival of

5:22

Volkswagen in the South, for the

5:24

UAW, this seems different, potentially good.

5:26

The UAW leadership saw Volkswagen

5:29

as their best opportunity. Their

5:32

best opportunity for good reason.

5:35

Because Volkswagen has plants all over

5:37

the world and they all have

5:39

some kind of worker representation. Plus

5:42

the company had actually come out and said

5:44

that they wanted that in Chattanooga at their

5:46

new plant. So management

5:48

was open to a union. UAW

5:51

definitely wanted a union. Now it's

5:53

just a matter of convincing the workers.

5:55

Yeah, you'll want a union too. What

5:58

could go wrong? Hello

6:01

and welcome to Planet Money, I'm Amanda Aroncik.

6:04

And I'm Nick Fountain. Union membership in

6:06

the US has been declining for decades.

6:08

In part because of how difficult this

6:10

one phase in the life cycle of

6:12

any union has become. The

6:14

setting up of that union. And

6:17

if you want a case study in just

6:19

how many ways things can go wrong, well,

6:21

look no further than Chattanooga. Today

6:23

on the show, we look at three

6:25

attempts over 10 years to establish a

6:27

union at this one car plant. And

6:31

what these attempts tell us about why

6:33

union campaigns live or do. This

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message comes from NPR sponsor Grammarly.

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more at Amgen. Dot Com. One

7:44

of the 2,000 workers hired by Volkswagen

7:46

at their new plant in Chattanooga is

7:48

Steve Cochran. I was there the first

7:50

day the first car was produced. I've

7:53

been there since the ground breaking pretty

7:55

much. Steve's job is

7:57

to maintain the equipment when something

7:59

breaks. He's one of the people they call

8:01

to fix it. He used to work at Goodyear

8:03

Tire Factory. His entire career has

8:05

been working in factories. Right. And he

8:07

says, when you work at one of these places, you got to

8:09

stay sharp. I mean, even though there's a lot of

8:11

automation in there, there's still a lot of hands

8:14

on the car screwing in bolts and stuff. So

8:16

I still got all 10 toes and 10 fingers.

8:18

And there's a lot of people out there that

8:20

don't my age, you know, because they get them hung up in

8:22

something or do something dumb. And I

8:24

like to go home with all my digits

8:26

and all the same way I come in, you know, so.

8:29

I get that. I get that. I

8:31

feel like that's a reasonable thing to expect from work. Oh, yeah.

8:34

No, Steve had been in the union before when he'd

8:36

worked for Goodyear. So when he heard that

8:39

Volkswagen was supportive of unions, he was

8:41

like, yeah, great. That's what I want

8:43

to. Like, if you get a job at

8:45

General Motors, Ford, or any other places like that, it's

8:47

life changing. That changes your life

8:49

for years. It changes everything

8:51

that you ever do. You know, that

8:54

should be the same thing when you get a job at Volkswagen. Volkswagen

8:57

had set starting wages at the plant at $14.50 an hour,

8:59

which was pretty decent

9:02

for Chattanooga. But Steve is

9:04

pretty sure that if they had a union,

9:06

they'd probably get higher wages, better benefits, more

9:08

time off. Not long after

9:11

the plant opens, the United Auto Workers hold

9:13

their first meeting in Chattanooga. Steve

9:15

shows up and he's into

9:17

it. Pretty quickly, he decides that not only does

9:19

he want a union, he wants to be a

9:22

union organizer. So he starts

9:24

campaigning for the UAW. He's

9:26

making flyers, he's talking to people, doing social

9:28

media. He's trying to convince his coworkers, we

9:30

need a union. We need

9:32

the UAW. Now, to establish

9:35

a local chapter that is able to

9:37

sit down and negotiate with Volkswagen, they

9:39

have to prove that a majority of

9:42

workers actually want a union. Here

9:44

is how that happens. Union officials

9:46

go around with authorization

9:48

cards. This is Professor Steven

9:50

Silvia again. So they're not

9:53

membership cards, but

9:55

they're authorization cards. What

9:57

they say on them is... I

10:01

authorized the UAW

10:03

to be my

10:06

representative in collective

10:08

bargaining. Right. The first

10:10

step to getting a union at the

10:12

plant is getting signed cards from a

10:14

majority of the workers, which the UAW

10:16

says they got. But here's

10:18

where things go a little sideways. Remember

10:21

how Volkswagen ended up in Tennessee, that

10:23

$570 million worth of incentives? Yeah.

10:28

Many of those politicians behind those incentives

10:30

do not want the UAW at this

10:32

plant. They do not want the UAW

10:34

in Chattanooga. They do not want the UAW on a

10:37

boat. They do not want it with a goat. They

10:39

do not want the UAW anywhere near anything.

10:42

Right. The way they figured

10:44

a union at the plant could lead to

10:46

contagion. Next thing you know, all

10:49

the companies in Chattanooga would end up unionized.

10:51

That would be expensive for business. So

10:53

Volkswagen trying to be pro-labor, but also

10:55

trying to keep things, you know, kind

10:57

of chill with the Republicans running the

11:00

state. They are stuck in

11:02

this mushy middle and they do this kind

11:04

of weird thing. They reject the cards, don't

11:06

recognize the union, but at the same time,

11:09

they still insist they do want a

11:11

union. So the UAW decides to

11:13

try the next option for setting up a

11:15

union with an election,

11:18

which to Volkswagen seems more acceptable.

11:20

An election is called. There's a week and

11:22

a half of official campaigning where the UAW

11:24

makes their case and people opposed to the

11:27

union make theirs. And then there's

11:29

going to be a secret vote. Both

11:31

sides campaign everywhere. There are

11:34

billboards, TV ads, radio ads,

11:36

testimonials. A lot of people

11:38

who don't work at the plant also get

11:40

into the mix, like Maury, nicely. He's

11:42

a lawyer who works for an anti-union

11:44

group called Southern Momentum. This is the

11:47

top of the UAW in the digital. This

11:50

is part of a presentation that Maury

11:52

gave to workers to convince them not

11:54

to vote for the UAW. And in

11:56

this moment in the presentation, he's pointing

11:59

to a pyramid. which is on the screen. I spoke

12:02

with Morrie and

12:05

according to him he

12:07

was brought into this campaign

12:12

by some Volkswagen workers who did not want

12:14

a union at the plant. If

12:16

you want to think of Southern Momentum, think

12:18

of it as it's basically a loudspeaker for

12:21

these employees who are

12:23

concerned about the UAW who beyond

12:26

Southern Momentum didn't have a voice.

12:29

Southern Momentum was partly funded by donations

12:31

from members, but Morrie also acknowledges that

12:33

money came from people who didn't work

12:35

at the plant, local businesses and people

12:37

who really didn't want the UAW to

12:40

come to Chattanooga. Another person

12:42

who really didn't want the UAW to

12:44

come to Chattanooga, Senator Bob Corker, one

12:46

of the politicians who offered Volkswagen that

12:48

$570 million plus in incentives and

12:52

said that the plant opening was the greatest moment in

12:54

his public career. Well, right

12:57

before the big vote, he shows up in

12:59

a new segment pointing out how dangerous and

13:01

radical the union leaders are. The officers

13:03

a month ago talking about fighting and

13:06

combat and all of those kind of things. If

13:08

that's the environment you want, UAW certainly is the

13:11

people for you to choose. Then

13:13

on the first day of voting, he

13:15

delivers a shocker. He says

13:18

he has it on good authority

13:20

that if workers reject the union,

13:22

Volkswagen would commit to expanding its

13:24

operation and build its

13:27

new SUV right there

13:29

in Chattanooga. After three days

13:31

of voting, it's finally time to tally

13:33

up the votes and see who's

13:35

won. For the union, 626 votes. Against

13:37

it, 712. It's decided there

13:44

will be no union at the plant

13:46

in Chattanooga. And to Morrie

13:48

from Southern Momentum, Bob Corker

13:50

and a bunch of local politicians weighing

13:52

in like this on the union election,

13:55

that totally made sense. These were Tennessee

13:57

politicians. These were Chattanooga politicians. These were

13:59

citizens. saying this is not the

14:01

best thing for our state and that's exactly what

14:03

those people should be doing. That for

14:05

maintenance workers, Steve Cochran, the

14:08

Senator had gone too far. I'd say he was

14:10

probably one of the biggest deciding factors.

14:12

And the media ran with it. They pushed it

14:14

everywhere on the news, radio, everything in the world.

14:16

To Steve, the Senator had intimidated the workers.

14:18

And he thinks some of them might have

14:20

changed their votes. Some people are out of a

14:23

fear thing. I ain't going to say they believed him, but they said, you

14:25

know, what if? What

14:27

if Bob Corker is right? What if Volkswagen

14:29

sets up a new plant elsewhere? What if

14:31

they cut our jobs? What if? What if?

14:33

What if? So that

14:36

was union campaign number one. Doomed,

14:39

Steve would say, by a politician putting his

14:41

finger on the scales. And

14:44

maybe that is the takeaway from this first campaign. Sometimes

14:47

big, powerful people interfere

14:49

with union drives and change the outcome.

14:51

In the past bunch of years, leaders

14:53

at Amazon and Boeing have gotten in

14:55

trouble for this, threatening

14:57

dire consequences if their workers

15:00

unionize. For workers, sometimes those

15:02

threats can overshadow the potential upsides

15:04

of joining a union, like

15:06

how much more vacation they might get or more pay.

15:10

Which brings us to chapter two,

15:12

the micro unit. After the

15:15

failure of the 2014 campaign in Chattanooga,

15:17

the UAW decides that they should

15:19

try again and quickly. We got

15:21

to do something different. So Steve and some

15:23

of his fellow workers come up with a new

15:25

plan. They decide instead of trying to

15:27

organize the whole plant, what if they start

15:30

a micro unit? You know,

15:32

a small group that would get to bargain

15:34

directly with management. In this case,

15:36

it would be just for the skilled workers, so

15:38

not like workers on the line, but electricians and

15:40

machinists, those kind of jobs. When there's

15:42

150 of you, you know, you're like, you know about all of them,

15:45

you know? So you kind of talk to

15:47

each other and stuff and know how things are going

15:49

to shake out. Steve thinks a bunch

15:51

of these skilled workers are going to vote for

15:53

a micro unit. Many of

15:55

them have been in unions before, and they supported the

15:57

UAW in the first campaign. And the plan is to get to

15:59

the UAW. If they win, then

16:01

they can scale up and unionize the

16:03

whole plant. The process plays out

16:06

kind of like it did the last time. Steve

16:08

and the other organizers try to get people to

16:10

sign authorization cards. Volkswagen again

16:12

rejects those cards. Again, there's some

16:14

campaigning, then an election. And

16:17

this time, the UAW wins. We

16:20

won by 68%. You actually

16:22

did better than that, Steve. 71% of

16:24

workers voted for the microunit. This

16:28

is a big deal. All of these

16:30

foreign-owned car companies, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, they'd

16:32

been setting up plants in the South,

16:34

and none of them had unions. Now,

16:37

at this point, Volkswagen's management's like,

16:40

wait a second. We're not

16:42

really into this whole microunit thing. Because

16:45

we do want some kind of worker representation,

16:47

but it needs to represent all the workers,

16:49

not a fraction of them. We can't

16:51

negotiate with just some of you. That's

16:54

foreboding. Now,

16:57

this is when Stephen the

16:59

professor says that Volkswagen's attitude

17:01

towards the union hardens. And

17:03

so what happens is they go to fight it,

17:05

so they hire Littler Mendelssohn, which

17:07

is a very well-known

17:10

union-busting law firm, and then

17:13

they learn about the union

17:15

avoidance playbook. This is where

17:17

it's injected into the Volkswagen

17:20

bloodstream. Once it's there, it

17:23

just takes, and they

17:25

just run with it. We should mention

17:27

that we reached out to Volkswagen for this story, and

17:29

they declined to come in. So now,

17:32

instead of the fight happening with ads

17:34

and billboards and flyers, it's going to

17:36

happen with lawyers. Lots of

17:39

lawyers. Volkswagen and the UAW

17:41

ask the National Labor Relations Board

17:43

to weigh in on the dispute.

17:45

They're the federal agency that oversees

17:47

union elections. For a peek

17:49

into how that agency works, we called up

17:52

Wilma Liebman. She's a former chair of the

17:54

Labor Board and also a former Planet Money

17:56

guest. By the way, I came

17:58

here about a couple months ago. ago to do

18:00

an interview for a different Planet Money episode.

18:03

Wilma knows a lot about labor unions. That's

18:05

why we call her. She's also worked for

18:07

the UAW as a consultant and as one

18:09

of their ethics officers. Wilma says that the

18:12

UAW went to the board to try

18:14

to get Volkswagen to recognize the

18:16

micro unit. And Volkswagen,

18:19

they refused. And here's where

18:21

it gets interesting and albeit

18:23

wonky way. A lot of

18:25

times when this thing happens, Wilma says,

18:27

companies will actually weaponize the whole labor

18:29

board process and use it to gum

18:32

things up. I think some employers flow

18:35

walk it. So they make

18:37

it look like they're engaging in good faith

18:39

bargaining. But if they really

18:41

are determined to avoid unionization

18:44

and having to bargain with the

18:46

union, there are different ways that

18:48

the whole process can be slowed down. Wilma

18:51

says, that's what happened here. Generally,

18:53

the labor board has permitted these micro

18:55

units. But Volkswagen argued

18:58

that grouping those skilled workers

19:00

together, that did not qualify.

19:02

Maintenance workers like Steve work with everyone

19:04

in the plant. They weren't really what's

19:06

known as a community of interest. They

19:08

weren't a self-contained group. The UAW,

19:11

of course, argues that this micro unit that they're

19:13

trying to set up is a

19:15

community of interest. Volkswagen's like, nope.

19:17

So back and forth, hearing this,

19:19

appealing that. Volkswagen drags this whole

19:21

thing out as long as they

19:24

can. Which Wilma says is

19:26

perfectly legal. There's no real

19:28

penalty for employers using

19:30

all these kinds of delaying

19:32

strategies. There's no fines,

19:34

there's no damages to speak of. It

19:37

doesn't have much in the way of peace. Despite

19:39

all of that, around the end of 2016, it's

19:42

finally starting to look like Volkswagen is running out

19:45

of things to appeal. And the

19:47

UAW might get their micro unit. But

19:50

then, big plot twist. A

19:52

new president is elected, Donald Trump, you may

19:55

remember him, and the

19:57

political orientation of the labor board

19:59

completely... changes. Yeah. So

20:01

this agency is famous for

20:04

what's typically called flip-flopping

20:06

every time the White House changes.

20:09

A more formal expression is policy

20:11

oscillation. I too have been accused

20:13

of policy oscillation by my family.

20:16

It happens to the best of us. So here

20:18

is what happens. A new chair is

20:20

appointed by the president, and now the

20:23

board is like, you know

20:25

what? We need to look at how we

20:27

define community of interest again. Tighten

20:29

up those rules for forming and micro-units. All

20:32

of a sudden, the UAW is back at square

20:35

one. Willma says the labor board

20:37

can be annoyingly inconsistent

20:39

over time, that the rules

20:41

are always changing. I

20:43

think the reasons for that are pretty obvious. It's, you

20:46

know, that labor and capital

20:48

have deep divides. And

20:51

labor law and the role of unions in

20:53

the U.S. have always been subject to very

20:57

deeply held and divided views. The

20:59

UAW and Volkswagen continue to fight

21:01

over the micro-unit thing in the

21:03

background for years. Kind of gets

21:06

stuck in a stalemate. So the takeaway

21:08

from the second failed union drive

21:10

in Chattanooga, timing really

21:12

matters. Under some administrations,

21:14

the NLRB seems to take the side of

21:17

management, like what happened to the UAW in

21:19

Chattanooga. And under others, the

21:21

NLRB is just way more union-friendly, like how

21:23

they had a bunch of rulings in favor

21:25

of the new union at Starbucks. And for

21:27

some grad students who have organized around the

21:29

country. It just kind of depends on who's

21:31

in charge. Meanwhile, Steve and

21:33

his buddies, they still want

21:35

a union. Coming

21:39

up after the break, they take their fight

21:41

to the factory floor. Try

21:43

a little spontaneous protest. This

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23:21

plant has been open for

23:23

seven years. Steve and the other Union supporters

23:26

have been trying to get a union set

23:28

up pretty much the whole time

23:30

but this conflict has sort of been

23:32

a slow burn. Yeah they never really

23:34

had a big dramatic type moment that

23:36

you see in a union movie but

23:38

then a week and a half

23:40

before Christmas 2018

23:42

that moment happens and it basically

23:44

launches the Union's third campaign. It

23:47

happens when the company changes this one policy.

23:49

So we have a shutdown every Christmas and

23:51

every summer you know for putting new equipment

23:53

in or whatever it is it's called winter

23:55

shutdown and they pay us for that week.

23:58

The shutdown was so that they could change up

24:00

the assembly lines so they could start making their

24:02

new SUV. This time it was

24:04

going to take even longer than the week they usually

24:06

needed three extra days. Normally

24:08

how this would work is that workers would

24:11

have the option to just not get paid

24:13

for those days. But this time management makes

24:15

an announcement and says, Hey everybody, for those

24:17

three extra days, you're going to have to

24:19

use your paid time off. We were just

24:21

like, you know, really? People were like, I don't want,

24:23

I ain't doing that. It didn't like it. So at

24:26

that moment, there are a bunch of people working

24:28

on the floor of the plant and they're all

24:30

looking at each other over these half assembled cars,

24:33

muttering to each other about management, taking

24:35

away three of their already limited paid

24:37

days off. For a lot of the

24:39

workers, that's three out of just 10 days that they get

24:41

each year. If y'all make a use all of it up,

24:43

then when are we going to have to take time off,

24:46

be our family, be sick, take our kids, the doctor, you

24:48

know? So it's kind of like, you know, that doesn't work

24:50

for me. And meanwhile, the

24:52

workers know that the people who

24:54

made this new policy are sitting

24:57

just upstairs, up in their glass

24:59

walled offices. If one guy said,

25:01

man, what can we do? You know, because I'm going

25:03

to walk up there during our break time. I said,

25:05

I'll go back with you. By break time, the number

25:08

of angry people has grown. About 50 of us marched

25:10

upstairs and now we're not going to do this. At

25:13

first, management kind of digs in, but

25:15

the workers, they dig in too. Yeah,

25:17

because when break time ends, they

25:19

don't go back to the floor. Production just

25:22

stops. They could have started to

25:24

line back up because so many people missing from

25:26

the line. Steve says he could see on the

25:28

managers faces that their little protest, it

25:31

was working. So the workers and the

25:33

managers are in this standoff. The cars on

25:35

the plant floor are not being assembled.

25:38

Finally, the managers say, OK, they'll

25:41

think about it. By the end of the

25:43

day, they're like, fine, you don't have to

25:45

use your paid days off. When that happened,

25:47

that actually changed the way they handled that

25:49

stuff for a little while. But it

25:51

didn't stick. Steve says that not

25:53

too long after they actually changed the

25:55

policy back. And Steve, he

25:58

used this moment. He told his colleagues. If

26:00

they had a union, this flip-flopping by

26:02

management around policies, it would not be

26:04

happening. I'll try to explain to people, if we

26:06

had had a contract and that stuff was written in a

26:08

contract, then we wouldn't have to do that no more. All

26:11

that stuff is just not left up to somebody's, this

26:14

is how I feel about it today. In

26:16

the months after this mini-protest, Steve and

26:18

the other union supporters are actively trying

26:20

to drum up support for

26:22

another election. But you

26:24

know what was also happening around this

26:26

time? The FBI has raided the home

26:28

of United Auto Workers Union President Gary

26:30

Jones. This is part of a probe

26:33

regarding alleged corruption within the US auto

26:35

industry. Yeah, the whole time

26:37

they're campaigning, this corruption scandal at

26:39

the UAW is all over the

26:41

news. Again, in addition to the pro-union

26:43

side, there's a campaign against the union,

26:46

and they are making a very

26:48

big deal of this scandal. So,

26:50

you know, a lot of the

26:52

discussion in the campaign flowed down

26:54

to, is this really who you

26:56

want representing you? Southern Momentum's

26:58

Maury nicely again. He says he

27:00

doubled down on this message, made

27:02

the whole campaign very personal.

27:04

Is this who you want, you know,

27:07

look guys, is this who you want to marry? Is

27:10

this who you want to step up and say I do too? When

27:12

the campaign for the third election wrapped up,

27:14

the vote tally came in. For

27:16

the union, 776. Against it, 833. The union loses again. Now,

27:25

some of this obviously had to do

27:27

with the UAW's legal problems. The

27:29

corruption scandal was like a gift. Oh

27:32

yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I certainly take

27:34

no revelry in that, but that

27:36

obviously colored and influenced that election.

27:39

Maury says he knew workers who were open

27:41

to the idea of joining a union. They

27:44

just didn't want to join the UAW. So

27:46

the takeaway from Union Drive number three, it's

27:49

kind of a self-evident one, maybe

27:51

don't have a giant scandal in the middle

27:54

of your union election. Right. Maury

27:56

said there was more going on here than just

27:58

the scandal. The real reason- And he

28:00

says that this third Union drive

28:02

failed really why they all failed

28:05

Was because of where they were taking place. We

28:08

are a very right-leaning

28:10

state and particularly in

28:12

terms of politics and Union

28:16

equals Democrat right and

28:18

an anti-union equals Republican And so, you

28:21

know when you come into Tennessee, you're

28:23

probably already dealing with that on this

28:25

point union organizer Steve Cochran Actually

28:28

agrees. He says people

28:30

decide whether they're pro or anti-union

28:32

based partly on their political identities

28:35

But he says that didn't happen by

28:37

accident It was the result

28:40

of a deliberate campaign by anti-union

28:42

forces They've politicized it

28:44

that that's the biggest one that I've seen

28:46

where they're saying well if you vote in

28:48

favor of Union You're a Democrat and I'm

28:50

like nice not true That

28:52

has nothing to do with anything inside my

28:54

workplace. It just doesn't I mean Sorry,

28:57

but Democrat Republican either one, you know, it doesn't matter

28:59

but they did a real good job of doing that

29:02

You know playing them kind of politics of people. So

29:05

Steve has been at this for more than 10 years He's

29:08

tried three times to get his plan

29:10

organized, but he says he's still not done

29:13

Do you think there's is there a plan to

29:15

try to unionize the whole plant again? Oh always.

29:17

Oh, yeah. Absolutely Yeah,

29:19

always always it's kind of a

29:22

thing you either give up or die, you know, you

29:24

know, you keep pushing or you die You

29:26

know, don't give up Steve has been

29:28

watching the big UAW strikes happening right

29:30

now across the country if those go

29:32

well for the Union Maybe next time

29:34

more workers at his plant in Chattanooga

29:36

will vote. Yeah That

29:41

is where we left it back in October

29:44

2023 now as we know things did in the

29:46

end go well for the Union So

29:49

what changed what changed to flip so

29:51

many votes at the Chattanooga plant? To answer

29:54

that we called up professor Steven Sylvia

29:56

again if you want to start at

29:59

what made things different. It

30:02

was the election of Sean Fain. Sean

30:04

Fain became president of the United Auto

30:06

Workers in March of 2023, and late last year he

30:10

led the UAW on strike

30:12

nationally and won huge victories

30:14

against the big three automakers.

30:16

That's General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis,

30:19

which used to be Chrysler. Many

30:21

people looking at it were in

30:23

some ways skeptical at first, but

30:26

the thing that was amazing is

30:28

the UAW was

30:30

very clever in

30:33

selecting tactics. Traditionally, the UAW

30:35

would target just one of

30:38

the big three car companies at a time. But

30:40

Sean Fain threw out that old

30:42

playbook, and the UAW decided to

30:44

hold strikes at all big three

30:46

companies at the same time. But

30:49

not at every single plant. They

30:52

picked strategic plants. So when they shut

30:54

one of these down, it meant that

30:56

another plant downstream wouldn't be getting what

30:58

they needed to do their jobs. So

31:01

the whole thing was very disruptive to

31:03

production and it also let a lot

31:05

more workers stay on the job collecting

31:08

paychecks. By having a

31:10

strike that would have a

31:12

relatively small number of employees

31:14

involved, you could shut down

31:16

a significant amount of production.

31:18

And they were

31:20

very successful. And as the workers

31:22

in the Chattanooga plant watched all of this,

31:25

another thing, Stephen says, that made Sean

31:27

Fain and the UAW seem more attractive

31:30

was transparency. Workers got

31:32

to watch the UAW negotiate in

31:35

real time, often with live

31:37

streaming updates on the negotiations. Like

31:39

there's this one video where Sean

31:41

Fain gives his response to a

31:43

Stellantis offer. Everything they're looking

31:45

for in this document is about concessions.

31:47

So I tell you what I'm going to do

31:50

with their proposal. I'm going to file it in

31:52

its proper place because that's where it belongs, the

31:54

trash, because that's what it is. Sean

31:56

is different because he

31:59

is so transparent. honest with everyone. That's the

32:01

thing that we like best about him. This is

32:03

Steve Cochran again, does maintenance for the Volkswagen

32:05

factory in Tennessee. He's a union organizer. When

32:08

I called him up, he was in his car driving home

32:10

from work. Steve says that Sean's

32:12

transparency tactics were able to change some

32:15

people's perceptions of unions in the South.

32:18

Having all that done in the public eye was

32:21

very, very, very eye-opening, very educational for a

32:23

lot of people everywhere. When

32:25

we last left Steve, the union had just

32:28

lost their third election. He and the other

32:30

union organizers were getting ready to regroup. Since

32:33

then, there's been one other big change, this

32:35

time from the Volkswagen side. The company

32:38

decided to stay neutral this time.

32:40

They didn't put out a big anti-union campaign. They didn't

32:42

put out fear tactics with us. Basically, hey, it's going

32:44

to be your decision. The office says it's

32:46

what it is, and both stay as neutral as possible. And

32:49

they did. Steve says this is because

32:51

the brass at Volkswagen headquarters in Germany

32:53

told the management at the Chattanooga

32:55

factory that you will not

32:57

run an anti-union campaign. Because

33:00

of that, the stalling tactics that the company had

33:02

used last time did not come into play. So

33:05

Steve Cochran said it was much

33:07

easier to make his case this time,

33:09

even in conservative Tennessee, which is a

33:11

right to work state where unions are

33:13

very politicized. They're considered aligned with the

33:15

Democratic Party and are generally pretty unpopular.

33:18

You have to understand, though, there's a

33:20

lot of Republican voting people in Chattanooga,

33:22

a lot of them. We're never

33:24

going to tell anybody how they should or shouldn't vote. That'll never

33:26

happen. But everybody put that aside. They put

33:28

all that aside and said, we got to do it ourselves.

33:31

And then, after all of those campaigns for

33:33

in the past dozen or so years, last

33:36

week, workers at Steve Cochran's

33:38

factory voted overwhelmingly to form a

33:40

union. We had a watch

33:43

party at the union office,

33:45

and up there was there and stuff. There was some good fireworks

33:47

going off, and some people drinking a little bit of alcohol and

33:49

stuff. Nothing got out of hand. Steve, how

33:52

did it feel to walk into work on

33:54

the first day after the vote? It

33:57

is a lot better feeling than walking in

33:59

the office. in after a loss. I know that. I was

34:02

very proud and at the outcome and

34:04

very smiling and stuff, but it didn't

34:07

glow. Steve said there were a

34:09

couple of people who might have cheered

34:11

a little, maybe a few handshakes, some

34:13

high fives, but mostly people just got

34:15

back to work, side by side with

34:17

their colleagues, regardless of how they voted.

34:19

We've been at this thing for 12 long

34:22

years, and it's just

34:24

a great feeling now, you know, but honestly, people can

34:26

disagree about something we're still going to do our job

34:28

though and build the best quality cargo can. That chose

34:30

me the true grit. And Steve's hoping

34:33

that maybe this is the start of a

34:35

new era of unionizing in the South. You

34:37

know, we're one of the first dominoes, you

34:41

know, so if our domino knocks their

34:43

domino, the next dominoes, this may be

34:45

a huge, huge push throughout all

34:47

the automotive industry in the South. The next

34:49

domino Steve hopes will fall are

34:51

the Mercedes factory in Vance, Alabama,

34:53

a Toyota engine plant in Missouri,

34:55

a Hyundai plant in Alabama, and

34:57

a plant that Volkswagen is currently

34:59

building in South Carolina. Our

35:04

original episode was produced by Willa

35:06

Rubin, engineered by Josephine Neonay, back

35:09

checked by Sierra Juarez and edited

35:11

by Keith Romar. Aida Porosad helps

35:13

with research. Alex Goldmark is our

35:15

executive producer. Today's update was

35:18

produced by James Snead, engineered by

35:20

Valentina Rodriguez Sanchez, and fact checked

35:22

by Sam Yellowverse-Purfer. If you

35:24

want to read more about union organizing at

35:27

car manufacturing plants, Steve and Stevie have a

35:29

new book out titled UAW's

35:31

Southern Gamble. Special thanks this

35:33

week to Blake Farmer, Michael

35:35

Gilliland, and Bob Kilk. I'm

35:37

Amanda Aroncik. And I'm Nick Bountin. This

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