UAW board OKs $40M to organize nonunion plants, battery workers

The UAW says it will spend $40 million in new funds to support the organizing of workers in nonunion auto plants and battery facilities, "particularly in the South," through 2026.

The United Auto Workers union, in a news release Wednesday, said its top decision-making body, the International Executive Board, voted Tuesday "to commit the funds in response to an explosion in organizing activity among nonunion auto and battery workers, in order to meet the moment and grow the labor movement."

UAW spokesman Jonah Furman said the board vote was unanimous, and the figure represents $40 million that has yet to be spent. It wasn't immediately clear what the union normally outlays on this type of organizing or how much has been spent in recent months. The board is made up of 14 members, including the union's president, secretary-treasurer, three vice presidents and regional directors.

The union made a splash following last year's Detroit Three bargaining when it announced a major push to organize more than a dozen nonunion auto companies in the United States. The UAW said more than 10,000 autoworkers have signed union cards, including a majority at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Public campaigns have also been announced at Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama, and Mercedes-Benz near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Free Press recently reported that UAW President Shawn Fain expects to organize at least one nonunion auto plant in 2024.

Organizing the Southern nonunion plants, many operated by foreign-headquartered automakers, has been a long-elusive goal of the UAW, but the results of last year's widely watched bargaining with Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis, owner of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat, helped fuel a belief from some that a change in that story is possible. The contracts that followed the targeted strike strategy against all three automakers secured wage gains and other improvements for workers as well as the return of cost-of-living adjustments, something lost during previous concessionary bargaining.

Despite broader public support for unions and headlines trumpeting contract wins for unionized workers in recent years, unionizing faces many barriers in the United States, and unionized private-sector workers remain a fraction of the total workforce.

More:Fain: UAW will unionize at least 1 nonunion automaker in 2024

Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.