Volkswagen Bargaining team receives Social Justice award

The Social Justice award was awarded to the UAW Volkswagen bargaining committee, Local 42 which represents over 5000 Union members from Chattanooga TN. Director Region 8 Tim Smith was the first to talk about Local 42. Some quotes that Tim wanted to highlight is "Baby steps become extraordinary”. He talked about how Local 42 lost the unionization vote two times but they never gave up. Tim also stated “The south is not for sale". 

Shawn Fain said he would never forget that night, Feb 19th 2026. The unionization vote was overwhelming with a 96% YES vote!  Shawn said that Local 42 has set the new standard on how to organize. 

Shawn then gave the brothers and sisters of local 42 the Social Justice award. The bargaining chair waved for his local to stand by his side as he gave his emotional speech. He was not in this alone, it was a group effort. He took this vote to heart saying, “We are going to go to other plants down in the south. We know who the first one was, we are wondering who the next one is.“It is a human right to organize these other plants.”  He ended his speech by letting us all know we are family.  After his speech one of the bargaining team members took the mic and wanted the delegates to know how good it felt to be in the union and how bad he wanted to be in it.