The United Auto Workers has organized its first joint-venture battery plant, a facility in northeast Ohio owned by General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution, the union said early Friday.
The union said workers at the Ultium Cells LLC plant in Warren, Ohio, overwhelmingly voted in favor of UAW representation, with 710 voting for the union and 16 voting against it. The plant is one of four U.S. facilities the companies are planning to open. Production launched first at the Warren facility this past summer.
The National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the election, confirmed the vote tally favoring the union on Friday. Both parties have five business days to file objections. If no objections are filed, the results will be certified and bargaining can commence.
“Our entire union welcomes our latest members from Ultium,” UAW President Ray Curry said in a statement. “As the auto industry transitions to electric vehicles, new workers entering the auto sector at plants like Ultium are thinking about their value and worth. This vote shows that they want to be a part of maintaining the high standards and wages that UAW members have built in the auto industry.”
The Warren Ultium facility is the first of several battery plants the UAW will look to organize as the Detroit Three automakers progress on their EV plans. The organization efforts come a year before the UAW starts contract talks with the automakers, which are likely to focus on preserving union jobs in the move to EVs.
"The successful organizing of the new wave of electric battery manufacturing is essential to the UAW's future position," said Marick Masters, a professor at Wayne State University's Mike Ilitch School of Business, in a statement. "Its victory in the recent election to organize the Ultium facility represents a milestone in its path toward this end. Now the challenge is to meld the representation of these workers into the overall fabric of the auto negotiations so as protect jobs and wages."
The Ultium plant neighbors the former GM Lordstown Assembly plant, where for more than 50 years UAW-represented workers made GM products until the plant closed in 2019.
"This is a new generation coming alive with the UAW in this area," said Anthony Russo, a production associate at the Ultium plant who voted in favor of the union. "We're seeing it come back in a great way. And I think we're going to take over and lead into the future ... Ultium will be the new GM Lordstown."
The UAW had been trying to organize the Ohio Ultium plant all year. The union wanted to organize with a card-check agreement but previously said the company pushed back on using that method. Ultium instead sought to have an election certified by the National Labor Relations Board for the union to be recognized.
In October, the union filed to have an election on behalf of about 900 workers. At the time, UAW president Ray Curry said while most Ultium workers had signed cards to authorize UAW representation, Ultium declined to recognize the UAW as the employees' union.
An Ultium Cells plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, will open late next year and just received a $275 million investment for expansion there. A third plant is under construction in Delta Township near Lansing and will open in 2024. GM and LG are considering a site in New Carlisle, Indiana, for the location of a fourth plant.
