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The UAW is targeting U.S. factories of a dozen companies, including Tesla, Honda and Toyota, in a push to expand its reach beyond its Midwestern stronghold.
For decades the UAW’s main autoworker members have come from Detroit’s Big Three manufacturers — Ford, General Motors and Jeep-maker Stellantis. The union’s past efforts to push into factories in the South have failed.
The ambitious effort comes after the UAW won record raises and other perks in new contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall. The union is hoping those contracts will help broaden its appeal with autoworkers nationwide.
The UAW launched the campaign late last year, aiming first to get workers to sign union cards stating their interest in joining the UAW. The union said that once 70 percent of workers at a factory signed cards, the UAW would demand that the company recognize the union. If that proved unsuccessful, the union said it would ask the NLRB to hold an election.
UAW spokesman Nathan Janda declined to confirm Monday whether the union had hit that 70 percent threshold.
Past efforts to unionize Southern auto plants foundered in the face of local opposition from conservative politicians and skepticism from workers.
The union says worker attitudes toward unionization are becoming more favorable as younger and more diverse employees join the plants.
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