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volkswagen
‘Historic Victory’: Volkswagen Workers Ratify First Union Contract at Southern Auto Plant
"Southern autoworkers are standing up, and I expect many more to follow Volkswagen’s lead," said the director of United Auto Workers Region8.
Feb 20, 2026
Organized labor scored a massive win in the US South on Thursday as Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted with 96% support to ratify their first union contract, a four-year deal that includes significant wage increases, reduced healthcare costs, and stronger job-security protections.
The contract ratification vote came nearly two years after the Chattanooga Volkswagen workers voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), which called the vote a "historic victory." The UAW is leading a concerted effort to unionize workplaces in the South, where so-called "right-to-work" laws and Republican-controlled governments' hostility to labor have made organizing extremely difficult.
"Southern autoworkers are standing up, and I expect many more to follow Volkswagen’s lead,” said Tim Smith, director of UAW Region 8, following the contract vote. “Workers are done being left behind, and VW is just the first step towards justice for autoworkers everywhere. Who are we? U-A-W!”
Shawn Fain, the UAW's president, said that Volkswagen workers have "moved yet another mountain."
“From having the courage to stand up and form their union, to having the backbone to authorize a strike and hold out for a contract that honors their worth, VW workers are leading the way for the entire labor movement and non-union autoworkers everywhere," said Fain. "Welcome to the UAW family."
The union victory at the German automaker's lone active manufacturing plant in the US was seen as a critical breakthrough for Southern organizing efforts. The AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the US, called the Volkswagen contract vote "an inspiring and historic milestone for working people in the South."
The UAW's bargaining committee at the Chattanooga plant celebrated the win but stressed that ratification is just the first step.
"The next step is enforcing it," the committee said. "The strongest way to make sure every raise is paid, management follows every safety rule, and every right is respected is simple: Become a member. Membership means collective strength. Membership means protection. Membership means that when the contract is tested—and it will be—workers stand united and ready to defend what they fought to win."
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'Willing to Do What It Takes': UAW Volkswagen Workers in Chattanooga Call Strike Vote
"I'm voting yes to get Volkswagen to come back to the table," said one employee at the plant. "The majority of the people I know don't want VW's 'final offer.'"
Oct 23, 2025
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who unionized with the United Auto Workers last year, announced Thursday that they will vote next week to authorize a strike after over 13 months of fruitless contract negotiations with the auto giant.
The strike authorization vote planned for October 28-29 "comes after months of unfair labor practices committed by the company, including bad faith negotiations, unlawful intimidation, and the unilateral cutting of jobs at Volkswagen’s only US assembly plant," UAW said in a statement. The union also highlighted Volkswagen's $20.6 billion in profits last year.
Company spokesperson Michael Lowder said Monday that "Volkswagen made it clear to the union that our last, best, and final offer is indeed final. We cannot in good faith prolong negotiations by continuing to bargain when we have already put our best offer on the table. It is time for the UAW to give VW employees a voice and let them decide for themselves by voting on our final offer."
However, multiple employees said Thursday that they are not happy with the company's latest offer and plan to vote for a strike.
"I'm voting yes because this is the time to show Volkswagen we are serious about receiving industry-standard treatment. Job security's essential. They could pay us $100 an hour, but it means nothing if they close the plant two weeks into the agreement," said James Robinson. "I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract. We will show them their offer wasn't enough, show them we're willing to stand up to get what we deserve."
"I'm hoping this process shows the company we are serious about getting a fair contract."
Employee Taylor Fugate said that "I'm voting yes to get Volkswagen to come back to the table. The majority of the people I know don't want VW's 'final offer.' They want to keep negotiating, and we are willing to do what it takes to make that happen."
"We need affordable healthcare and a strong job security statement that leaves no gray area," Fugate added. "We also deserve equal standards—Southern autoworkers shouldn't be treated differently!"
One elected Republican held a press conference on Wednesday in a bid to bully the union into holding a vote on the company's latest offer. Local 3 News reported that Hamilton County Commissioner Jeff Eversole said: "Volkswagen put forward a final union contract offer over a month ago that offers significant gains for Chattanooga workers, including a 20% wage increase, a cost-of-living allowance, a $4,000 ratification bonus, lower healthcare costs, and much more. Many employees have been reaching out to the UAW to vote, and the UAW has refused."
Payday Report's Mike Elk pointed out Thursday that "the tactics used by the GOP in Chattanooga are similar to the tactics that they have used for more than a decade to sometimes successfully dissuade union votes by implying that the plant may close if the union gets 'too greedy' (their words, not my mine, as the son of a Volkswagen auto assembly line worker)."
Local 3 News noted that "during the press conference, dozens of members from both the UAW and the Chattanooga Area Central Labor Council, or CLC, began picketing outside of the VW plant."
The outlet also spoke with some employees. One of them, Dakotah Bailey, explained that "originally, it was going to be a 25% increase in wages. They didn't want to take that, and now they dropped it down to 20%. I wanted to try and get my money now. Especially right before the holidays. It would be great to have an extra $5,500 sitting in my bank account."
According to a "Volkswagen Stories" video series published by the UAW on YouTube, wages are a primary concern for workers. Other top priorities include health and safety conditions at the plant, healthcare, paid time off, and retirement benefits.
"I don't want to strike, but if it comes to it, I will," Volkswagen worker Mitchell Harris said Thursday. "Because I feel that all my brothers and sisters of UAW Local 42 deserve respect, to provide a better life for their families, and have job security for us and generations to come."
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Thousands of Autoworkers Protest in Brussels Amid Likely Audi Layoffs
"Their anger is very legitimate, very understandable, especially since Audi is not very clear on its plans," a local employment minister said.
Sep 16, 2024
Thousands of autoworkers protested in Brussels on Monday following recent news that Audi, a subsidiary of the German automaker Volkswagen, would phase out production at its plant there, which is expected to mean layoffs for its roughly 3,000 employees by the end of 2025.
The phase-out announcement led to a labor dispute that's shuttered the plant for the last two weeks, with some employees forming an encampment protest outside. The plant is expected to resume operations on Tuesday even though the core issues underlying the labor dispute, which some unions have characterized as a lockout by management, haven't been resolved.
Between 5,500 and 11,000 demonstrators marched toward the European Parliament on Monday, bringing "chaos" to Brussels, where public transport was largely shut down. Unions not directly affected by the Audi plant's likely closure participated in solidarity.
"Their anger is very legitimate, very understandable, especially since Audi is not very clear on its plans," Bernard Clerfayt, a local employment minister, told AFP.
Charlie Le Paige of Belgium's worker's party, Parti du Travail de Belgique, wrote on social media that there were "lots and lots of people in the streets of Brussels in support of Audi workers and subcontractors."
Le Paige said that the company was treating employees as disposable while distributing huge amounts of money to shareholders, and declared that "workers are not adjustment variables!"
Beaucoup beaucoup de monde dans les rues de Bruxelles en soutien aux travailleurs et aux sous-traitants d'#Audi 🔥 Le groupe VW-Audi a distribué près de 12 milliards de dividendes l'année passée, les travailleurs ne sont pas des variables ajustement! pic.twitter.com/aUEgbCNZsl
— Charlie Le Paige (@charlielepaige) September 16, 2024
The state-of-the-art Audi plant in southern Brussels produces the Q8 e-Tron, an electric sport utility vehicle. Audi received about 27 million euros ($30 million) in public funding to retrain workers when it converted to electric vehicle production.
Audi announced in July that it was considering discontinuing production of the commercially unsuccessful Q8 e-Tron and closing the Brussels plant, and said earlier this month that it still hadn't found an alternative vehicle that it could produce there.
The following day, September 4, the plant's workers "downed tools" and set up protest camps on the premises, according to World Socialist Web Site.
On September 6, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a leading U.S. unionist, visited the plant in solidarity with the workers there.
About 1,500 Audi workers at the plant face the prospect of layoffs as early as next month, another 1,100 by May, and the remainder by the end of 2025. There are also many hundreds of subcontractor workers that would be impacted by a closure, unions have said.
Last week, workers took about 200 car keys from vehicles at the plant as an act of protest, prompting warnings of legal action by the company. The workers later returned the keys to try to facilitate discussions with management.
The plant's likely closure is seen as part of E.V. failures at Volkswagen and European carmakers more generally, prompting calls for the European Union to invest in and protect the industry. Audi reportedly plans to make the successor to the Q8 e-Tron in Mexico.
Many of the demonstrators on Monday spoke harshly about E.U. policy.
"We also want to send a strong signal to European authorities, which are making things difficult for Belgian industry, but also for European industry," Patrick Van Belle, a leading union official at Audi Brussels, told Reuters, in explaining the reasons for Monday's demonstration. "The manufacturing industry is mainly migrating away from our countries."
Volkswagen's layoffs may in fact extend beyond Belgium. The company made the surprising announcement earlier this month that it may shutter factories in Germany, drawing fierce opposition from unions there. The closures would be the first in Germany in the company's 87-year history.
Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week issued a report, commissioned by the E.U., calling for stronger industrial policy and a degree of trade protectionism, including in the auto industry, which is struggling to compete with heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles. Draghi, hardly considered a radical political thinker, drew criticism from neoliberal institutions for the proposals.
Local police said about 5,500 people attended the demonstration on Monday while unions put the figure at 11,000.
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