Autoworkers union celebrates breakthrough win in Tennessee and takes aim at more plants in the South

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Business Writer

DALLAS (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is celebrating a huge win at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, where workers will now be represented by the union. The UAW won a stunning 73% of the vote after losing two elections there in the past decade. That is giving the UAW hope of making broader inroads in the South, the least unionized part of the country. The union’s next target is two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where workers will vote next month on whether to join the union. Harry Katz, a labor-relations professor at Cornell University, says other companies will be more aggressive than VW in fighting to prevent workers from unionizing.