Labor News & Commentary March 5 lots of headlines for the United Auto Workers

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/march-5-2025/

By Henry Green

In today’s news and commentary, lots of headlines for the United Auto Workers as the union comes out in support of tariffs, files for an election at a Volkswagen distribution center in New Jersey, and continues to bargain a first contract at the Chattanooga VW plant they organized last spring.

The UAW released a statement Tuesday praising President Trump’s announcement he would initiate broad tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. “We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class,” read a statement posted on the UAW’s website. The statement calls on corporations not to raise prices in response to the tariffs and says the union is working with the Trump Administration on “auto tariffs in April to benefit the working class.” As an article from Axios notes, the UAW endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, but has “softened its tone toward the president since he won reelection.”

Meanwhile, bargaining continues at the Chattanooga, TN Volkswagen plant that the union organized in April. The plant employs more than 4,000 workers. The Chattanooga election win was the UAW’s “first breakthrough at a foreign automaker in the South.” Negotiations for the unit’s first contract began over the summer. The company’s latest offer includes a 20% wage increase over four years, up from an offer of 14% in December. The UAW bargaining committee says it’s fighting to secure a comparable package of wages, benefits, and working conditions as UAW members receive at Ford, GM, and Stellantis.

And in a final piece of UAW news, UAW-organized Volkswagen workers have filed for an election in New Jersey. Workers at a parts distribution center in Cranbury, NJ “became the first VW workers on the East Coast to file to unionize with the UAW,” according to the union. Parts distribution centers operate as a warehouse of parts for VW dealers, as a worker explains in a UAW video about the election. It appears the New Jersey unit would be smaller than the Chattanooga one, since the promotional video says the two units together would equal 5,000 UAW members at Volkswagen.