Union supporters rallied Sunday ahead of what they called a potentially historic election at Volkswagen Chattanooga this week to organize a foreign automaker in the South.
To do so, the United Auto Workers will need to overcome the union's own recent history of corruption, with one group saying the UAW spent millions of dollars last year on travel, country clubs and entertainment.
But Sunday afternoon, more than 200 people packed a union meeting room at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' office in Chattanooga in a raucous rally.
(READ MORE: Third try at Volkswagen Chattanooga)
Volkswagen workers and their families, community members, clergy and others joined the effort to see an outcome in which the automaker's employees vote to select the UAW as their bargaining representative.
VW assembly worker Billy Quigg told the group that employees are proud to work at the plant and know the company is "a good influence" on Chattanooga.
Still, he said Volkswagen is making billions of dollars and "all of us in this room know why we should vote yes."
"We can make sure issues are heard and resolved," Quigg said.
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Over 200 rally for organizing Volkswagen ahead of potentially historic election this week
He said other auto plants are unionized in the South, such as the General Motors factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee, which he termed "a shining beacon."
Michael Gilliland, organizing director of Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence, said at the rally there's a lot of momentum and more energy than in past elections, when the UAW was voted down at VW.
Gilliland, whose group helped put on the rally, said in an interview the new contracts the UAW won after strikes against the Detroit Three automakers is one reason.
Also, he said, the UAW seems more organized in its effort at VW this time.
"They're ready to go," Gilliland said.
He said a win at Volkswagen will serve as a springboard at other auto plants, such as at Mercedes in Alabama, where the union also is slated for a vote.
Lakecha Strickland of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1212, in the Chattanooga area told group members they have the power to make a difference at Volkswagen.
"The power is in your hands," she said.
However, the Center for Union Facts said last week that an analysis of UAW spending provided what it called a "first-of-its-kind window into the union's financial priorities."
The labor watchdog group said a spending breakdown of UAW national headquarters for 2023 shows $6.55 million for hotels, $2.62 million for public relations, $1.92 million for entertainment, $1.35 million for travel and $80,007 for country clubs.
The center also said $10.26 million was spent for lawyers last year, $1.21 million for restaurants and $756,000 for "swag."
Center Communications Director Charlyce Bozzello said UAW President Shawn Fain "faces an uphill battle to overcome the union's bad reputation."
"Spending millions annually on resort hotels, swag, and other entertainment – while his own members face layoffs – may not be the best way forward," she said in a statement.
But Fain said in a statement Sunday that every penny in the union's treasury is the hard-earned money of working class people pooling their resources together to fight for a better life.
"Compare that to the billionaire-backed so-called Center for Union Facts, which exists only to protect the rich and scare working class people out of standing up for ourselves," he said. "Shame on them.
(READ MORE: UAW president comes to Chattanooga)
"Here's a union fact: Union auto workers make more than 20% more than nonunion workers, have no health care premiums and have a voice on the job," he continued.
A federal probe about five years ago found broad corruption in the union, with a dozen officials, including two former presidents, convicted of taking more than $1 million of union funds for luxury travel and other lavish personal expenses, according to The New York Times. The union has since had a court-appointed monitor oversee anti-corruption reforms. Fain was the first president elected under one of those reforms, which was direct election of a president instead of a delegate system. He took the oath of office in March 2023.
Dariusz Dabrowski, general secretary of the Volkswagen Group’s European and Global Works Council, spoke at the rally expressing his support for the UAW. Works councils, which are common in Europe, are panels of blue- and white-collar employees who talk with the company about issues such as safety, training and scheduling.
Volkswagen workers, for the third time in about a decade, will vote for or against unionizing the assembly plant in the vote Wednesday through Friday at the plant.
Some 4,300 production and skilled maintenance employees are eligible to take part in the election.
The union lost close votes at VW Chattanooga in 2019 and 2014. The plant employs 5,500 workers and produces the ID.4 and Atlas SUVs. Volkswagen has said it plans to remain neutral and will let employees decide in the vote.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.