The United Auto Workers just notched a historic victory in Tennessee, the union’s first major win since signing new contracts in Detroit as it shifts focus to the South. Some industry workers there feel more optimistic than ever, but others still aren’t ready to join up. Friday’s landslide outcome at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, where 73% of workers who cast votes opted to unionize, followed two failed attempts and is the UAW’s first win at a foreign automaker in the South.
“The gains that happened in 2023 moved people into middle class jobs,” she said, and workers everywhere see it. But not all of them have been won over. Omari Roundtree, who works as a trim specialist at a Honda plant in Maryville, Ohio — and has a brother who works at the Chattanooga VW plant — said his skepticism since speaking to NBC News in October hasn’t shifted much.