https://uaw.org/vw/
30% is kinda low af and doesn't give me much hope for the vote.
The UAW has said that they aren't holding the unionization vote until 70% of workers at the plant have signed cards.
Comrade, let's leave unnecessary pessimism in 2023. We need some optimism. Unions will win.
I mean hopefully there's some sort of tipping point, but if it takes until 2030 to get 70%, then I can't help but be pessimistic.
There's plenty of things to be pessimistic about: the US is starting up 6 different proxy wars, Israel is doing genocide, the planet is on fire, etc. Seeing union action is one thing that gives me some hope is a ocean of despair.
UAW just won a very good new contract last month which includes the right to strike over plant closures. After winning their contract UAW announced that within in the next 5 years, they want to unionize 3 more non-union car companies. UAW announced that they want to organize a general strike with other unions to potentially happen on May 1, 2028. UAW is currently attempting to organize 13 non-union car companies, including: Toyota, Tesla, Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW.
Will the UAW unionize all 13 companies in the next 5 years? Probably not. I'm happy if they unionize 1 more company. I need something to be happy about. This is a hopium post. We're getting high on hopium.
It's not necessarily about pessimism, more about strategy. You want to go public with card drops once you have 60-70% card drops. Not the other way around. Now it's an all out fight with the management and workers. When you wait to go public you have the advantage.
I think I'm going to trust the UAW on their judgment. They've had a lot of success recently, they probably have pretty good judgment on this type of thing.
Keeping the organizing a secret makes zero sense from a strategy standpoint. The media has been reporting for months now that the UAW is trying to unionize other car companies. All the car companies know already.
It does not need to be a secret because the UAW is not using a secretive organizing strategy. They're not some random person on the internet, who learned about labour unions by looking at memes during the covid pandemic, daydreaming of starting a union from scratch. The UAW is one of the largest and most well known unions in the US.
The UAW just won a massively successful contract at GM, Ford, and Stellantis (Fiat/Chrysler). The strategy that the UAW is using to organize new companies is that they are bragging about their success to workers at other companies and offering them to have the same. Right after UAW won their new contract, Toyota (the largest car company in the US) had to give their own workers raises to stay competitive with the new UAW wages.
The UAW is telling workers at other companies that the raises that they got was because of the UAW and those workers should join the UAW to get even more benefits. The president of the UAW has been frequently using a new slogan. He says "UAW stands for You Are Welcome", "You Are Welcome" for the raise that the UAW gave you, and "You Are Welcome" to join the UAW.
The strategy is not a secret. Everyone knows what is going on. The other companies could lie to their workers about the UAW, but the success of the UAW is right in front our faces. The proof of the success of the UAW is material. Workers at other auto companies see the success of the UAW with their own eyes. The UAW is telling them, 30% of your coworkers signed the card, if you sign the card too, then you get the benefits of our union.
UAW is not some monolith. The team that won the big contract is totally different than the leadership organizing VW plant. And just because the one team did a good job doesn't mean every decision they make is a good one.
It is external organizing 101. You want bare minimum 50% support before you tell the employer you're unionizing. Just because unions are in their air is totally different than our plant is organizing. Rushing an organizing effort is a great way to not get a great union or just lose
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: