UAW making push to unionize Georgetown Toyota plant after strike win in Louisville
Fresh off landmark victories for workers at Louisville’s Ford plant and other automakers, the United Auto Workers union is targeting a second major Kentucky employer.
The UAW announced on Wednesday simultaneous campaigns at non-union plants across the South, including Toyota in Kentucky, where nearly 8,000 people work at the company’s largest assembly plant in the world.
A spokeswoman for the Georgetown Toyota plant said the company is not commenting at this time.
One of the strongest campaigns, according to a post on the UAW’s web site, UAW.org, is at Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., assembly complex, where 7,800 workers make the company’s iconic Camry and highly profitable RAV 4 and Lexus ES.
Toyota announced it was raising pay just after UAW members won record contracts at Ford, GM and Stellantis. But, according to the union, workers like 29-year Georgetown team member Jeff Allen, who’s had two work-related surgeries, said the raise won’t dissuade workers from organizing.”
Kentucky is a hub of auto manufacturing, with more than 100,000 employed in the industry, according to the Cabinet for Economic Development. That will increase substantially with the electric battery plants coming to the Bowling Green area.
The UAW said it already has been receiving requests from autoworkers and has begun coordinating efforts to unionize at Toyota plants. According to Axios, workers in Georgetown have formed a voluntary organizing committee to build support for going union.
“We’ve lost so much since I started here, and the raise won’t make up for that,” Allen told the UAW. “It won’t make up for the health benefits we’ve lost, it won’t make up for the wear and tear on our bodies. We still build a quality vehicle. People take pride in that, but morale is at an all-time low. They can give you a raise today and jack up your health benefits tomorrow. A union contract is the only way to win what’s fair.”
In October, the UAW scored a major victory after a six-week strike that eventually included the Ford plant in Louisville. The three largest automakers, Ford, Stellantis and GM agreed to a new contract with 25% wage increases for workers, among other gains.
Ford said the six-week strike cost the company $1.7 billion.
The new UAW campaign will cover nearly 150,000 workers at more than a dozen automakers including Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Subaru, Mazda, Tesla, Rivian and Lucid.
“To all the autoworkers out there working without the benefits of a union: now it’s your turn,” says UAW president Shawn Fain in a video posted online.
“Since we began our Stand Up Strike, the response from autoworkers at non-union companies has been overwhelming. Workers across the country, from the West to the Midwest and especially in the South, are reaching out to join our movement and to join the UAW. So go to uaw.org/join. The money is there. The time is right. And the answer is simple. You don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. 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.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2023 at 10:52 AM.
