Workers at Ohio Battery Plant Vote to Join Union
Workers at a new GM joint venture battery plant near Warren voted for UAW union representation. The union said in a statement Friday that workers voted 710 to 16 for the UAW, a decision that is crucial to the future of the 372,000-member union.
As batteries replace gas-powered engines, employees at GM engine and transmission factories will need places to work as their products are gradually phased out over the next decade or so.
GM has pledged to sell only electric passenger vehicles by 2030, and the Ohio plant is the first to begin making battery cells that will go into packs that make electric vehicles go.
The company has announced the sites of two other North American battery factories in Lansing, Michigan, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, to be built in a joint venture with LG Energy Solution of South Korea. The location of a fourth plant, built by the Ultium Cells joint venture, is expected to be announced soon.
“The vote shows that they want to be part of maintaining the high standards and wages that UAW members have built in the auto industry,” union President Ray Curry said in the statement.