Mercedes employees rally for union support in Alabama on May 5, 2024.
AP Photo/Kim Chandler
The loss in Alabama doesn’t mean the UAW is done winning in the South.
Volkswagen workers celebrate in Chattanooga, Tenn., after their bid to join the UAW union prevailed.
AP Photo/George Walker IV
Despite making similar efforts for decades, the UAW union had never before managed to organize employees of foreign-based automakers in a Southern state like Tennessee.
A UAW supporter in 2017 outside a Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., ahead of a vote the union lost.
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Despite intermittent efforts over the past three decades, the UAW union has been unable to organize employees of foreign-based automakers in states such as Alabama and Tennessee.
UAW President Shawn Fain, left, clasps hands with President Biden after endorsing his bid for reelection.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
In close races, support from the United Auto Workers and the rest of organized labor could prove decisive.
Will Tesla’s workers be the next to approve a UAW contract?
AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez
Wooing those workers will be expensive and require a lot of creativity, since many of them are employed in ‘right-to-work’ states.
UAW President Walter Reuther, center, shakes hands with a Ford executive after agreeing on a three-year contract in 1967.
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Reuther was both ambitious and pragmatic, scoring many victories for autoworkers.