By Nora Eckert

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Reuters) – Workers at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant voted to join the United Auto Workers, in a seismic victory for the union as it advances beyond its base in Detroit into the southern and western United States. Joined.

The majority of eligible workers voted in favor of the union, with the final count on Friday 2,628 to 985, or 73% in favor of joining the UAW.

The landslide victory will make the Chattanooga factory the first auto plant in the South to unionize through elections since the 1940s and the first foreign-owned auto plant in the South to do so.

It’s also a big boost for UAW President Shawn Fain’s campaign to unionize plants owned by more than a dozen automakers across the United States, including Tesla. Fain, known for his aggressive negotiation tactics, and his team have committed to spending $40 million through 2026 on this effort.

Jubilant workers, some crying, raised their arms in victory and held signs reading “Union Yes” as the final count came.

“I’m excited that we really accomplished what we set out to accomplish,” VW employee Lisa Elliott said as she hugged her co-workers. “Tell Mercedes they’re next,” she encouraged.

A Mercedes plant in Alabama, where most workers have signed cards indicating they support unionization, will be the next facility to hold a UAW election, during the week of May 13.

“You all just did the most important thing a working-class person can do, and that is stand up,” Fain told workers at the count viewing party.

“You will lead the way. We will take this fight to Mercedes and everyone else,” he added.

Although the UAW narrowly lost votes at the same plant in 2014 and 2019, this year’s vote was preceded by growing public support for unions and successful contract negotiations last year with the Big Three automakers.

“The margin is overwhelming,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is a historic moment.”

VW took a neutral position in the vote at its only non-union factory globally. The UAW has previously represented VW workers at a Pennsylvania plant that made Rabbit cars before it closed in 1988.

The UAW, which has seen its membership decline as Detroit automakers restructure, has for decades attacked auto plants in the South, where anti-union sentiment has long run. Earlier this week, Republican governors in six Southern states, including Tennessee, spoke out against the union drive.

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In addition to the two narrow losses at VW earlier, the UAW suffered three larger losses at southern factories owned by Nissan, the last in 2017 in Mississippi.

But the broader labor movement has since experienced something of a renaissance, with record numbers of workers across various industries going on strike last year.

Last fall, US President Joe Biden picketed outside Detroit, where the union won double-digit percentage increases as well as cost-of-living increases from General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. That sparked a wave of raises by non-union automakers that some analysts said were designed to keep unions out.

Biden chastised Republican governors after the vote, citing several union victories in recent months.

“These union victories have helped raise wages and demonstrate once again that the middle class built America and that unions are still building and expanding the middle class for all workers,” he said in a statement.

In addition to the Mercedes plant, the UAW has said that more than 30% of employees at a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Toyota auto parts factory in Missouri have signed cards indicating they want to join the UAW.

Pro-union workers at the VW plant say they have campaigned to ensure greater job security, a better work-life balance and better benefits.

“Now that it’s official I can relax,” said Robert Crump, who has worked at VW for 12 years and voted yes in all three union elections. “It’s a really good feeling.”

(Reporting by Nora Eckert; Editing by Peter Henderson and Edwina Gibbs)