Luis Feliz Leon

Volkswagen has dug in its heels in first-contract negotiations at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers won a landslide victory in last year’s union drive.

“We’re still waiting for the company to agree to a proposal that simply affords us a fair share,” auto worker Steve Cochran testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on October 8. “We are living with health care that forces people into bankruptcy. We are living with no protection from inflation.”

Four hundred and seventy-five workers were arrested at a joint Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions electric-vehicle battery plant under construction in Ellabell, Georgia, on September 4. It was the largest immigration raid at a single location in U.S. history.

Hundreds of thousands of people across the United States rallied, engaged in civil disobedience, or struck on May 1, International Workers’ Day, joining hundreds of thousands around the world. Overall, actions organized by the May Day Strong coalition numbered more than 1,300 across all 50 states in over 1,000 cities and towns, extending into Saturday, May 3. The unifying cry was “Workers Over Billionaires.”

A majority of the 1,000 auto workers at the car battery park BlueOval in Glendale, Kentucky, have signed union cards to join the United Auto Workers.

The battery park, a joint venture between Ford and South Korea’s SK On, is expected to ramp up hiring to 5,000 hourly workers by 2030. It has twin battery plants. But the second one is on hold due to low demand for electric vehicles. At the first plant, workers are testing battery module packs from facilities in Georgia, as the plant prepares to become fully operational next year.