Less than two weeks after ratifying new contracts with Detroit automakers, the United Auto Workers union on Wednesday announced plans to try to organise workers simultaneously at more than a dozen non-union auto plants.
The UAW says the drive will cover nearly 150,000 workers at plants mostly in the South, where the union has had little success in recruiting new members.
The drive will target US plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo. Also on the union’s list are US factories run by electric car sales leader Tesla, as well as start-ups Rivian and Lucid.
“You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck,” union president Shawn Fain said in a statement appealing to non-union workers. “You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your rent or feed your family while the company makes billions. There is a better life out there.”
The union said Toyota’s 7,800-worker assembly complex in Georgetown, Kentucky, was among the plants with the strongest interest in the union. A Toyota spokesperson declined to comment.
The organising drive follows a six-week series of strikes at Ford, General Motors and Jeep maker Stellantis that ended with new contracts. Under the contracts, wages for top assembly workers will rise by 33% by the time the deals expire in April 2028. The new contracts also ended some lower levels of pay, gave raises to temporary workers and shortened the time it takes for full-time workers to reach the top of the pay scale.
At the end of the contract, top-level assembly workers will earn about $42 an hour and receive annual profit-sharing checks.
Shortly after the contracts were signed, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru and Hyundai raised wages at US plants in a move the union said was aimed at thwarting UAW organising efforts. Many of the companies also reduced the number of years it takes for workers to reach the top of the wage scale.
