UAW begins drive to organize 13 nonunion automakers with U.S. plants

The UAW on Wednesday announced an organizing campaign covering 13 automakers with U.S. assembly plants that, if successful, would roughly double the number of active auto workers it represents.

The union said thousands of nonunion employees are signing support cards and organizing to join the UAW, weeks after it won lucrative contracts at Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Stellantis. The drives are taking place at BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Lucid, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rivian, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

The companies have about 150,000 U.S. manufacturing employees. The UAW has about 146,000 members at the Detroit 3 today.

"To all the auto workers out there working without the benefits of a union: Now it's your turn," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a video released Wednesday. "Since we began our stand-up strike, the response from auto workers at nonunion companies has been overwhelming."

Fain telegraphed the union’s plans immediately after announcing tentative agreements with the Detroit 3 late last month, saying that he hopes to return to the bargaining table in 2028 with a “Big Five or Big Six.”

In a release, the union billed the simultaneous campaign as a “new aggressive strategy” that takes advantage of “working class leverage.”

Its website has an organizing page that highlights profits and CEO pay at the various companies it hopes to unionize — a tactic it employed to great effect during contract negotiations with the Detroit 3.The UAW said 30 percent of workers at a single plant need to sign an authorization card to publicly announce an organizing committee, Reuters and other outlets reported.

If half of the workers at a single plant sign the card, the UAW says Fain and others would hold a rally. If the plant reaches 70 percent, the union says it would demand voluntary recognition by the company and, if they refuse, would file to hold an election with the National Labor Relations Board.

The UAW has tried and failed multiple times to organize nonunion auto plants in the U.S.

The most recent defeat came in 2019, when it fell less than 100 votes short at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. It has also unsuccessfully attempted to organize a Tesla Inc. plant in California, an effort that CEO Elon Musk opposed.

The announcement comes after VW, Subaru, Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have raised wages for non-union U.S. factory workers in recent weeks.

Still, Fain says workers there can achieve even more by joining the UAW.

“You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck,” he said in the video. “You don’t have to worry about how you’re going to pay your rent or feed your family while the company makes billions. A better life is out there.”