VW’s Chattanooga Assembly Plant has voted to join UAW, in a historic move on the back of several recent union wins in the US.

The UAW have had quite a year, launching an unprecedented strike against all three major US automakers at the same time last September. The tactic worked, and six weeks later the UAW had made a deal with all three automakers, winning big pay increases and other assurances from each of them.

The win didn’t just help UAW workers, though, as soon after the strikes closed, several other companies announced big pay increases. Workers at VW, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Tesla all earned pay increases of about 10% or more as companies recognized the need to compete for skilled workers with better packages.

UAW President Shawn Fain called this “the UAW bump,” and said UAW stands for “U Are Welcome,” highlighting to non-union workers that strong unions help workers across the economy, not just at their own respective shops.

After these wins, the UAW announced their intention to unionize all other US automakers at the same time – an idea which President Biden lent his support to. UAW encouraged employees from other plants to signal their intent to join up by signing a union card through the website uaw.org/join/.

Fain even said that when the newly-negotiated contracts with the “Big Three” come up for renegotiation (on May 1, 2028 – International Workers’ Day), that this time the negotiations “won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six” – meaning that the UAW plan to have unionized other automakers by that timeframe.

And today, they’ve got their first big win.

Today’s VW vote was the first test of UAW’s strategy, and while votes are still being counted, 2,300 workers have voted yes out of around 4,300 eligible workers, meaning that even if all remaining votes are “no” votes, the measure would still pass with a majority.

Chattanooga’s vote makes history in several ways. It’s the first time in over 50 years that an automaker has newly unionized in the US, the first unionized auto plant in the US South, and the first time a plant owned by a foreign automaker has unionized in the US.

Prior to the vote, Chattanooga was actually VW’s only non-union plant worldwide. In fact, in VW’s home country of Germany, every company over a certain size must have worker representation, generally in the form of union representatives, on the company board.

The plant had conducted other union votes in the past, in both 2014 and 2019, but both failed by slim margins. But the plant has more than doubled in employment since 2019, along with more union momentum now than there was then.

Past votes lost at least partially due to opposition from republican state government officials who oppose worker representation. Today’s vote was opposed by Tennessee’s republican governor, Bill Lee, and republican governors from other nearby states.

Past votes were also affected by corruption scandals that left UAW’s former appointed presidents in prison. Current UAW President Fain is the first elected UAW president, as opposed to previous presidents that had all been appointed.

VW’s Chattanooga plant currently produces the VW ID.4 and the VW Atlas. The ID.4 was brought to Chattanooga in order to gain access to the US EV tax credit, and VW has considered bringing production of other EVs to the plant.

This was the first success of UAW’s new strategy, but it may not be the last. There is already another vote scheduled for next month at Mercedes’ plant in Alabama (a state where republican lawmakers recently passed a law to try to limit worker representation). That vote will occur from May 13-17, and if successful, would mean nearly 10,000 unionized autoworkers in the South over the course of just a few weeks.

Electrek’s Take

Unions are having a bit of a moment in the US, in recent years reaching their highest popularity ever since surveys started asking about them.

Much of union popularity has been driven by COVID-19-related disruptions across the economy, with workers becoming unsatisfied due to mistreatment (labeling everyone “essential,” companies ending work-from-home) and with the labor market getting tighter with over 1 million Americans dead from the virus and another 2-4 million out of work due to long COVID.

Unions have seized on this dissatisfaction to build momentum in the labor movement, with successful strikes across many industries and organizers starting to organize workforces that had previously been non-union.

However, union membership has been down over several decades in the US. As a result, pay hasn’t kept pace with worker productivity, and income distribution has become more unequal over time. It’s really not hard to see this influence when you plot these trends against each other.

It’s quite clear that lower union membership has resulted in lower inflation-adjusted compensation for workers, even as productivity has skyrocketed. As workers have produced more and more value for their companies, those earnings have gone more and more to their bosses rather than to the workers who produce that value. It all began in the ’80s, around the time of Reagan – a timeline that should be familiar to those who study social ills in America.

All of this isn’t just true in the US but also internationally. If you look at other countries with high levels of labor organization, they tend to have more fair wealth distribution across the economy and more ability for workers to get their fair share.

We’re seeing this in Sweden right now, as Tesla workers are still striking for better conditions. Since Sweden has 90% collective bargaining coverage, it tends to have a happy and well-paid workforce, and it seems clear that these two things are correlated. That strike is still continuing, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk – who just fired 14,000 people while holding the company hostage and begging for a $55 billion payday for himself – is seemingly uninterested in negotiating.

These are all reasons why, as I’ve mentioned in many of these UAW-related articles, I’m pro-union. And I think everyone should be – it only makes sense that people should have their interests collectively represented and that people should be able to join together to support each other and exercise their power collectively instead of individually.

This is precisely what companies do with industry organizations, lobby organizations, chambers of commerce, and so on. And it’s what people do when sorting themselves into local, state, or national governments. So naturally, workers should do the same. It’s just fair.

It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month.

Drive Electric Earth Month is an offshoot of Drive Electric Week, a long-running annual tradition hosting meetups mostly in the US, but also occasionally in other countries. It started as Drive Electric Earth Day, but since not every event can happen on the same day, they went ahead and extended it to encompass “Earth Month” events that happen across the month of April. It’s all organized by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.

Events consist of general Earth Day-style community celebrations, EV Ride & Drives where you can test drive several EVs in one place, and opportunities to talk to EV owners and ask them questions about what it’s like to live with an EV, away from the pressure of a dealership.

This month, there are 180 events registered across the US and 2 in Canada (including one online webinar about things to consider when purchasing an EV). Events have already started, with a smattering happening over the last few weekends, and the bulk of them this weekend, April 20-21.

Here’s a sample of some of the still-upcoming events this month:

• Phoenix Ride and Drive in Phoenix, AZ – Wells Fargo will be giving away an EV, along with ride & drives. April 20, 8am-12pm.
• SpaceCoast EV Earth Day in Melbourne, FL, at the American Muscle Car Museum, the largest solar-powered auto museum in the world. Displays include a custom electric camera car for cinematography, the Bricklin 3EV prototype, and NASA’s Apollo Moon Buggy. April 20, 10am-2pm.
• Electrify Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, with EV and e-bike test rides and presentations on green tech like heat pumps. April 20, 10am-4:30pm.
• PUD Energy Block Party in Everett, WA, which currently has 47 vehicles registered as attending and includes something called a “Truckstravaganza.” April 27, 11am-2pm.
• Salem Kicks Gas in Salem, MA with a large variety of EVs on display and test drives from local dealers, along with e-bike and other battery-powered outdoor equipment displays. April 28, 1pm-4pm.

Each event has a different assortment of activities (e.g. test drives won’t be available at every event, generally just the larger ones attended by local dealerships), so be sure to check the events page to see what the plan is for your local event.

These events have offered a great way to connect with owners and see the newest electric vehicle tech, and even get a chance to do test rides and drives in person. Attendees got to hear unfiltered information from actual owners about the benefits and trials of owning EVs, allowing for longer and more genuine (and often more knowledgeable) conversations than one might normally encounter at a dealership.

And if you’re an owner – you can show off your car and answer those questions for interested onlookers.

To view all the events and see what’s happening in your area, you can check out the list of events or the events map. You can also sign up to volunteer at your local events, and if you plan to show off your electric car, you can RSVP on each event page and list the vehicle that you plan to show (or see what other vehicles have already registered).

A new Kia electric SUV is getting the GT treatment. Images leaking out of China are giving us our first look at the Kia EV5 GT trim.

Meet Kia’s new EV5 electric SUV

Kia officially unveiled the EV5, its new compact electric SUV, at the Chengdu Motor Show in August. Branded as a family-friendly SUV, the EV5 features Kia’s new “Opposites United ” design.

You can see several elements pulled from Kia’s larger EV9 like the redesigned “Tiger Face” grille, which replaces the signature “Tiger Nose.” It retains the EV9’s boxy, rugged look but in a smaller package.

Aimed at millennials, Kia designed the interior for more than getting from point A to point B. Kia considered it an additional “room” to live in.

It also includes Kia’s next-gen connected car Navigation Cockpit (ccNC) with dual 12.3″ display screens and a 5″ climate control display.

At 4,615 mm long, 1,875 mm wide, and 1,715 mm tall, the EV5 will rival Tesla’s top-selling Model Y (L – 4,760 mm, W – 1,921 mm, H – 1,624 mm).

Kia launched the EV5 in China at around $20,000 (149,800 yuan). Powered by a 64.2 kWh BYD Blade battery pack, the base EV5 features up to 329 miles (530 km) CLTC range. The long-range, 88.1 kWh battery pack model is good for up to 447 (720 km) CLTC range.

In Australia, where the EV5 is imported, it will cost around $46,000 (70,000 AUS). An entry-level Air trim is expected to undercut the Tesla Model Y in the region, which starts at around $43,160 (65,400 AUD).

Kia EV5 GT leak reveals new sporty electric SUV design

We are getting our first look at the Kia EV5 GT after leaked images from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Tech (MIIT) released official images and specs of the vehicle.

As you can see, there are not many differences on the outside. There is added black trim on the lower front bumper. However, other Kia GT vehicles also include subtle visual differences. The big difference maker is in the performance.

The EV5 GT will feature a dual motor system, with a 215 hp (160 kW) front and 98 hp (73 kW) rear electric motor, for a combined 313 hp output.

Although the final details have yet to be revealed, the EV5 GT is expected to have 0 to 60 mph capabilities in under 6.5 seconds.

Kia’s new electric SUV is not the only one getting the GT treatment. All of Kia’s new EVs, including the EV2, EV3, and EV4, are expected to gain a GT trim.

They will join the EV6 GT, which packs 576 hp for a 0 to 60 mph sprint in 3.2 seconds. Kia put the EV6 GT up to the test against a Ferrari Roma and Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder RWD and beat both off the line.

Earlier today, we got our first glimpse of the low-cost EV2 out testing in public. The EV2 is expected to be Kia’s cheapest EV with starting prices around $15,000 (20 million Won). You can watch the video here.