Tennessee
UAW celebrates breakthrough win in Tennessee and takes aim at more auto plants in the South
By DAVID KOENIG | AP Business Writer
DALLAS — The United Auto Workers’ overwhelming election victory at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee is giving the union hope that it can make broader inroads in the South, the least unionized part of the country.
The UAW won a stunning 73% of the vote at VW after losing elections in 2014 and 2019. It was the union’s first win in a Southern assembly plant owned by a foreign automaker.
Union President Shawn Fain said the pundits all told him that the UAW couldn’t win in the South.
“But you all said, ‘Watch this,’ ” he told a cheering group of VW organizers at a union hall in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Friday night, when the UAW victory was clear. “You guys are leading the way. We’re going to carry this fight on to Mercedes and everywhere else.”
However, the UAW is likely to face a tougher test as it tries to represent workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A five-day election is scheduled to start May 13, where the union’s campaign has already become heated.
The UAW has accused the German carmaker of violating U.S. and German labor laws with aggressive anti-union tactics, which the company denies.
“They are going to have a much harder road in work sites where they are going to face aggressive management resistance and even community resistance than they faced in Chattanooga,” said Harry Katz, a labor-relations professor at Cornell University. “VW management did not aggressively seek to avoid unionization. Mercedes is going to be a good test. It’s the deeper South.”
Late last year, the UAW announced a drive to represent nearly 150,000 workers at non-union factories largely in the South. The union is targeting U.S. plants run by Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo, along with factories operated by electric-vehicle makers Tesla, Rivian and Lucid.
The union’s last defeat at VW in Chattanooga came at a low-water mark — in the middle of a federal investigation into bribery and embezzlement under a previous president.
Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who studies the UAW, said the union flipped the script by installing new leadership, touting the rich contracts it won last year from Detroit automakers after strikes at targeted factories, and exploiting a climate that is now more favorable to unions. He said the union was also adept at translating signed pro-union authorization cards into votes — partly by pushing for a quick election.
“Now the public and media eyes are going to be on Chattanooga and how quickly the UAW can translate this into a contract,” he said. If the union can’t quickly get a good contract, it risks losing some of the momentum it gained with Friday’s election win, he said.
Unions in other industries are already moving ahead with organizing campaigns in the South and trying to learn from the UAW’s playbook.
The Association of Flight Attendants, which has tried and failed to win over cabin crews at Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, hopes to collect enough signatures to force another election at Delta by year end. The union’s president, Sara Nelson, said she was not surprised at the UAW win after strikes that led to record contracts last year.
“I’ve been talking about this for a long time — that strikes and taking on the boss is going to spur organizing, and that’s exactly what we saw here,” Nelson said.
Nelson is trying to secure an industry-leading contract at United Airlines that she can use to court Delta crews. In the meantime, crews at startup Breeze Airways, many of whom live in the South, will vote next month whether to join her union.
The White House issued a statement from President Joe Biden congratulating the UAW. Biden — who joined a UAW picket line in Michigan during the union’s strike against Ford, GM and Stellantis plants last year — praised the success of unions representing autoworkers, Hollywood actors and writers, health care workers and others in gaining better contracts.
“Together, these union wins 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,” Biden said.
Biden criticized six Southern Republican governors, including Bill Lee of Tennessee, who told autoworkers this week that voting for union representation would jeopardize jobs.
Sharon Block, a law professor at Harvard University who worked for the Biden administration on labor and other issues, said the governors’ warning rang hollow after nonunion Tesla revealed that it plans to lay off 10% of its workers after disappointing sales results. She said VW workers saw the governors’ open letter as “an empty threat and a cynical ploy,” and they ignored it.
“Workers for a long time have been told that you can’t organize in the South. And many workers, even not in the South, may work in industries where they’ve been told for a long time you can’t organize,” Block said. “What the UAW showed last night is that we need to go and rethink all those negative statements.”
Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
Tennessee
What channel is Tennessee baseball vs Arkansas on today? Time, TV schedule for Fayetteville Super Regional Game 2
Tennessee baseball can extend its season with a win in Game 2 of the Fayetteville Super Regional against Arkansas on June 8.
The Vols (46-18) managed just two hits in the Game 1 loss, 4-3 to the Razorbacks on June 7. But ace Liam Doyle is the probable starting pitcher for Game 2.
Arkansas (47-13) put together 10 hits in Game 1, including a two-run home run by Ryder Helfrick to take the lead in fifth inning.
If the Razorbacks win, they will advance to the College World Series in Omaha next weekend. If the Vols win, Tennessee and Arkansas will play a deciding Game 3 on June 9 with time yet to be announced.
Here’s how you can watch Tennessee baseball vs. Arkansas Game 2 in the Fayetteville Super Regional:
Tennessee vs. Arkansas on Sunday will be televised by ESPN. Streaming options for the game include FUBO, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
- Game time: 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 8
- Location: Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas
All games at Baum-Walker Stadium; best-of-three format
- Game 1: Saturday, June 7, 5 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 2: Sunday, June 8, 3 p.m. on ESPN
- Game 3 (if necessary): Monday, June 9, TBD
The Tennessee Volunteers are set to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in game one of the Fayetteville Super Regional.
Tennessee’s road to repeating as national champs continues on Saturday as they will take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in game one of the Fayetteville Super Regional. The two teams faced off in the regular season and Arkansas took the series. Tennessee won the first game but the Razorbacks won the next two games to take the series.
The two teams will play in a best of three series. The winner will move on to play in Omaha in the College World Series.
The Vols will be looking to end their recent struggles against the Razorbacks this weekend. UT’s last series win against Arkansas came in 2005 while its last series win in Fayetteville was back in 2001.
This weekend will mark the seventh super regional for Tennessee in program history. The Vols have won five of their previous six supers and have posted an 11-4 overall record in those six appearances. After winning the 2025 Knoxville Regional last week, UT is now 26-6 all-time in NCAA regional games played at Lindsey Nelson Stadium and 31-9 overall in NCAA postseason games at home.
First pitch is set for 5 PM ET and will be broadcasted on ESPN for those who want to watch.
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OTHER TENNESSEE NEWS
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The cliches are abundant when it comes to team camaraderie.
Every group is close together and cares for each other, but rarely does an actual activity bring a hodgepodge of transfers, freshmen, and returning players together.
Fishing, something near and dear to second baseman Cam Kozeal’s heart, has brought Arkansas together as they prepare for their Super Regional matchup against Tennessee.
Left fielder Charles Davalan by his own admission was never the biggest fisherman, but equally passionate about fishing tactics as he is baseball just 24 hours before the most important game of the season.
“Lost my bait this morning,” Davalan said. “I guess I didn’t put the hook on right. But yeah, I lost my bait this morning. I wasn’t too happy about that.”
Kozeal, who split his childhood between Omaha, Nebraska, and rural Sargent, Nebraska, takes pride in his fishing skills. He gave the scouting report on his teammates’ abilities.
“Some guys have gotten a lot better than others,” Kozeal said. “Some are still learning. Brent’s gotten really good. V’s (Wehiwa Aloy) unbelievable, he’s a patient fisherman. Kuhio, if he feels anything on the end of the line, he just sets the hook about as hard as he swings the bat.”
Fishing abilities aside, Arkansas using the newfound hobby as a way to come together as they chase the elusive title. In the age of the transfer portal, coaches are always trying to get a group of new college kids to pull in the same direction as quickly as possible.
“We noticed it in the fall and you always discuss it with your team,” coach Dave Van Horn said about the togetherness. “With all that goes on in the offseason with the portal and new guys, a lot of guys drafted, guys coming in that weren’t here, somehow some way we got to get you guys to kind of gel and like each other and care about each other.”
With school out, there’s a lot of downtime between the regional and the Super Regional, When the Razorbacks take the field for the first game, it will have been 6 full days since the Hogs took the field against Creighton.
Not constantly thinking about baseball and having something to get away to could prove beneficial as the run to the College World Series continues,
“Going out during the day and not just sitting on your couch all day helps,” Kozeal said. “Can also help the mind. You’re not always so tense and focused on baseball, maybe you get away from the game a little bit and that helps some guys.”
No matter what happens this weekend, they’ll be no reports of friction that come tumbling out years later. The team may be in different spots in their fishing journey, but their baseball journey culminates in a series against Tennessee with a spot to Omaha on the line.
“It’s also a fraternity,” Van Horn said. “They’re hanging out, they get to know each other, they’ve become good friends in there, I really believe that.”
First pitch between Arkansas and Tennesee is set for 4 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast on ESPN.
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