UAW announces campaign to organize non-union factories

The United Auto Workers union announced Wednesday that it is embarking on an ambitious campaign to organize factories owned by more than a dozen non-union automakers, including Tesla and several foreign companies — a goal that has long eluded it.

The move comes weeks after the UAW won new contracts from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis that included pay increases of 25 percent or more over four and a half years for its 146,000 members employed there.

In addition to Tesla, the campaign targets two other electric vehicle startups, Lucid and Rivian, and 10 foreign-owned automakers: Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Volkswagen, Mazda and Switzerland. Volvo.

The union said that American factories owned by these companies employ approximately 150,000 workers in 13 states.

If the organizing campaign gains momentum, it could become one of the largest campaigns undertaken by the UAW since its beginning in the 1930s. Past efforts by the union to organize individual factories owned by foreign automakers, based in the South, have failed. A foothold among these companies would signal a major shift in the American auto industry, where nonunion manufacturers have long enjoyed a significant cost advantage over Detroit automakers.

The union said the organizing drive was prompted by inquiries from several thousand workers at non-union plants.

“Workers across the country, from the West to the Midwest and especially in the South, are reaching out to join our movement and join the UAW,” union president Sean Fine said in a statement. Video posted on Facebook. “The money is there. The time is right.”

A Honda statement cited the automaker’s “competitive pay and benefits,” adding: “We do not believe a third party would enhance our associates’ excellent employment experience.” Subaru did not comment directly on the union campaign but pointed to a series of wage increases and a comprehensive benefits package.

At a DealBook conference sponsored by The New York Times on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said: “If Tesla unionizes, it will happen because we deserve it and we have failed in some way.” He reiterated his opposition to unions, saying it was “not good to have an adversarial relationship” between groups within a company.

Rivian and Volkswagen said they had no comment. The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On Wednesday, the UAW activated websites where workers can electronically sign cards that serve as formal certification of their desire to seek union representation. Earlier, in a few factories, the UAW had already received signed cards from more than 30 percent of the workforce, The threshold required by federal law A person familiar with the matter said the union will move forward with a vote on unionization.

This person said the union is now working to send organizers to the areas surrounding these non-union factories to cooperate with workers in those factories.

After the UAW reached agreements with Detroit automakers to raise wages, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai announced they would also raise workers’ wages.

Toyota told workers it will raise hourly rates by 9 percent in January. Honda will raise wages 11 percent and Hyundai 14 percent next year. Hyundai plans to increase wages by 25 percent by 2028.

The UAW said Wednesday it is making a concerted effort to organize a large Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, which employs about 7,800 workers and produces the Camry sedan and RAV4 sport utility vehicle.

Longtime UAW members have earned more than non-union workers. In factories in the South, wages tend to start at less than $20 an hour and end at less than $30. The UAW’s top hourly wage, previously $32, rose to more than $40 in contracts the union signed with the three Detroit manufacturers.

The UAW has failed twice in the past decade — narrowly, in 2014 and 2019 — in union votes at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the UAW lost by a wide margin at a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss. 2017. Organizing efforts at other companies’ plants fizzle out before vote.

But after Mr. Fine became union president this year, the union promised a more aggressive approach in contract talks with the Big Three and pledged renewed efforts to expand its reach in the industry.

In addition to wage gains at Detroit companies, the UAW won agreements to preserve jobs and keep open a Stellantis plant in Illinois that had been scheduled to close.

The UAW’s wage gains created a stronger case for joining the union, said Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

“It shows the workings of collective bargaining and shows that the UAW has been successful,” he said. “They can say: ‘We saved this plant. Look what we got. You can have this, too.’

Mr. Wheaton added that previous organizing campaigns had been damaged because the UAW’s image had been tarnished: many union plants had closed, its members had been asked to accept wage and benefit cuts to help Detroit manufacturers survive the 2009 financial crisis, and federal corruption investigations. The involvement of senior union officials.

“A lot of the negative things about the union are gone now,” Mr. Wheaton said.

Santul Nerkar Contributed to reports.