UAW Hits 30% Support at Toyota Missouri Plant in Key Milestone

Nearly a third of employees at a Toyota plant in Missouri have signed cards in support of a union, the United Auto Workers said Wednesday.

The announcement is a step forward in the union’s effort to organize foreign-owned auto plants, particularly in the South, where organized labor has struggled for decades. The UAW already received union cards from a majority of workers at a Mercedes-Benz Group AG plant in Vance, Alabama, and a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as well as 30% of Hyundai Motor Co.‘s US plant in Montgomery, Alabama.

Federal labor law requires at least 30% support to call for a union election, though the UAW has said it won’t do so until it has 70% at a given facility. The Toyota plant in Troy, Missouri, employs about 1,000 workers and makes 2.6 million cylinder heads per year.

As a whole, the UAW campaign could add as many as 150,000 members to the union’s current roster of 265,000 auto and parts employees.

The union last year ratified contracts with the Big Three automakers offering raises of at least 25%, to more than $40 an hour. It came after a six-week strike, the first-ever against all three companies simultaneously.

In response, Toyota hiked wages for assembly line workers by 9.2%—to nearly $35 an hour—in an attempt to thwart union efforts.