The UAW will represent workers at a General Motors joint venture battery plant in Tennessee.
Most of the 1,000 workers at the Ultium Cells LLC plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, have signed cards in favor of joining the union, and the company has not interfered with the organizing drive, the UAW said Sept. 4. Ultium Cells LLC is a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution, which makes battery cells for GM’s electric vehicles.
“The Ultium Cells team in Tennessee has indicated its desire to be represented by the UAW,” a GM spokesman said in a statement. “The parties will now move on to the local bargaining process.”
Spring Hill is the second Ultium Cells local to join the UAW. Workers at a plant near Lordstown, Ohio, ratified their first local agreement with Ultium Cells in June.
It is also the first auto-related plant in the South to unionize since Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga voted to join the UAW in April. A similar effort to organize Mercedes-Benz workers in Vance, Alabama, failed in May.
“UAW members at Ultium and VW are proving that the South’s new jobs will be union jobs,” Tim Smith, director of UAW Region 8, which covers Tennessee, said in a statement. “In the battery plants and EV factories springing up from Georgia to Kentucky to Texas, workers know they deserve the same strong wages and benefits our members have earned. And we’ll make sure they have the support they need to win their unions and earn their fair share.”
Workers at the Spring Hill battery plant will now negotiate a local contract. The agreement ratified at the Ultium Cells plant in Ohio includes an initial hourly wage increase from $16.50 to $26.91, according to a letter from UAW President Shawn Fain, as well as a 30 percent wage increase over three years for production workers and a $3,000 ratification bonus.
“Ultium Cells has recognized the UAW as the official union representing hourly team members at our Spring Hill, Tennessee facility,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this partnership will support continued operations, drive innovation and enhance world-class manufacturing, further contributing to economic development in Tennessee.”
The joint venture is building a third battery plant near Lansing, Michigan. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said the additional battery capacity will come online “at a moderate cadence” as the company adjusts to slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.